Dogs, Tents, and Birds

These three little girls have been over at our house quite a bit lately. Their mom has been busy with moving (different house, same neighborhood), and since they homeschool, she sometimes needed a couple hours alone to get things packed. They get along great with Connor (and they're stinkin' adorable!) Their very favorite thing about our house is our dogs. Last time they were here they pretty much hung on Wiley the entire visit, and were very proud to show me when they'd put all of Elise's many hair barettes and clippies in his fur. Wiley is such a good dog, his tail wagged the whole day anyway. This picture is a Connor-initiated one. He wanted me to photograph him as a "monster with one eye". He thought his costume was very creative. They've been talking about imagination all month at Joy School, but Connor supposedly didn't like to participate much in their pretending. He kept interrupting their scenarios with comments like, "We're not really on the moon, right?" So, I'm glad his imaginative side is starting to come out more.

Okay, now I have to tell the story of our tent. I love our tent. I bought it last summer when we decided to give camping with two little kids a try (you can read that blog post somewhere around here.) Anyway, you might remember that it didn't go so well, and Ryan fixated on the tent as scapegoat. He had to put it up (without looking it over before we left, as had been suggested) in the dark, with poor instructions, and it's a lot more complicated than our 2-4 man tent of olden days. The result was that, after we got home, he didn't want to put it away. He was too frustrated. So, it sat piled on one of our patio chairs outside all fall and winter. After a lengthy argument about whose job it was to put this thing away, I caved last week and decided to reclaim my tent. I took it out back, set it up entirely (and took pictures to prove I'd done it), then carefully repacked everything and put it in the garage. The new camping rules are that, 1. we always arrive before sunset and 2. Mom is the new tent-master. Two Saturdays ago we got to drive to Chino and visit with Grandma and Grandpa! My parents were there in their RV for a dog show, so we spent the afternoon with them. The kids loved it, especially the doggies and the large supply of snacks my parents always share with them. My mom got some great video with her Blackberry of Connor and Elise singing, so hopefully I'll post that later. It was a nice day. And last of all, I finally got a picture of the baby birds in our backyard! There's a family of mockingbirds that built a nest in a bush right outside our bedroom window. It's right across from my computer desk, so I've spent the past month watching the parents fly back and forth every few minutes with caterpillars or berries in their beaks. They were completely tireless and devoted, it was quite inspiring. Anyway, I was worried about disturbing them, but eventually dared to poke my camera into the bush and see what I could get. I'm glad I did, because about four days later, the babies were big enough to fly away. I kind of miss them!