Today we...

ran ourselves ragged having fun.

We're supposed to get another bout of colder weather in a few days, so we're making the most of this warm spell.

First things first, fill up the pool so that the cold well water will be warm by afternoon.

(Please don't tell her that's not a pool. I think Hannah's figured it out, but Ains is still thrilled with her little 'pool'.)

Hannah and I stopped to look at birds in our huge pine tree.

House Finch.
European Starling. (This is really a European bird. It was introduced to NYC in the late 1800s and spread over the country from there. Very aggressive, dominating bird. Aren't field guides great?)
I think this is a Chipping Sparrow, though I'm willing to be convinced otherwise. It doesn't match the description of any of the chickadees in the field guide, but it doesn't have obvious white eyebrows as Chipping Sparrows do, either...


Ains thought we were boring, so she went and got 'Oreo', the kitten that Hannah and she are trying to convince their father needs to become a house cat.


Then the girls went to check on the new babies, Katrina and Karl.
We said hello to the pony...

and then went back to the house. While I worked on packing boxes in the bunkhouse, the kids played outside.


As I said, Hannah seems to think our 'pool' is boring (can't imagine why), so she went to go see if the irrigation canal had water yet. No luck.


But look what we did find...


The canal headgate has lots of these little creatures swimming around when the canal's full of water. We've never thought to look for their shells when it was dried up, but today we did. They're now on our Very Precious Things table.


I love how both of Ains' feet are off the ground in this picture.

Then lunch on the porch for some, naps for others, reading 'Pippi WalkingStocking' (Ains' title), playing with the 'new' toys discovered while reorganizing boxes, watching the hippo and dog sing 'In the Jungle' on YouTube, dancing, and eating oatmeal and chocolate chip cookies.

Hannah and I worked on a really fun letter project which I'll post later while Ains followed us around with the pony's halter saying 'Ride Pincess! Ride PINcess. RIDE PINCESSSSS!' Grayson thought her hilarious, which made her think she was, in fact, hilarious, so she amped it up for him. She was, in fact, hilarious.

When Daddy got home, it was pony-riding time. Hannah worked on controlling the reins...

while Ains worked on leading. (That rope is headed right over to my hand. I was 'just holding it off the ground' for my independent little girl who would have not appreciated me holding it to help her keep the pony on the straight and narrow.)

We went for an hour long ride (good exercise for us leaders), then home again, home again, jiggety-jig, dinner, and both girls passed out on the couches while watching Island Princess karaoke.

We done good.

Hannisms.

Hannah: (asking her father to help her down the stairs to the basement) "Father, catch me before I tumble head over petticoats."
One of my husband's favorite games is trying to figure out where she learned all of her sayings from - this one was from one of the leprechaun books.

Hannah: "Mother, you're such a nice mother that I've decided to let you help me find my husband when I'm older."

Heh. My plan is working out perfectly.

The girls found our last jar of jumbo olives from our winter recipe project. Have you never found a need for jumbo olives? Now you have.


Hannah: (in a huff after apparently having had a disagreement with her sister) "It's really hard not to call people dummies sometimes, isn't it, Mother?"

Oh, sweetie, that never gets any easier.

Matt was singing Island Princess karaoke with the girls the other night. He was singing the prince's part when Hannah told him he was 'not quite right'. "Oh, I know", says he, "I need to practice a lot if I'm going to be a prince." "But you can't be a prince," says his little girl, "because Sarah's not a princess and if you become a prince you can't be married to her."

What to do on a snow day.

Computer issues and time issues have been conspiring against me. No posting for almost a week.

Think the computer issues are resolved - for now - so here's what we did on our snow day last week.

Yoga. "Namaste. The light in me sees the light in you. Bow to me, I bow to you. Namaste."


I'll take this over "Jesus Wants Me For A Sunbeam" any day. I love Gray in the corner of the picture, trying to copy the girls.


Going on a bear hunt. They're going to catch a big one.



Grayson rides in the doll stroller. There was much giggling.


Ainsley wanted to be a puppy. Hannah taught her to 'sit', 'lie down', and 'be a princess'.


Gray fed the dog.


We went outside to chore and saw this - the owls out hunting in the daytime. The overcast sky made them comfortable. The angry tiny birds made them head for cover after an hour or so. That's one of my favorite things to watch in nature - ticked off tiny birds, smaller than an owl's or hawk's head, chasing those big birds away from their nests.


How to keep a five-year old and three kittens entertained - give her a lunge whip and tell her to walk in a circle.


Back inside, needing to warm up, the bathtub became the beach and swimming was the order for the rest of the day.


And so we spent our snowy spring day.

Snapshot Sunday

How it began.

Steph's up.

Sadie's taking a turn today!

Sunnymama is here.

Gina's joining in.

Heart Rockin' Mama is here!

Here's Rinnyboo.

And Kyre.

Ramblings is joining in today.

I am so glad spring is finally here.

Do you remember Paul Potts?

Paul Potts was wonderful . I teared up the first time I watched him, though that was mainly from the beauty of the song being beautifully sung.

This lady, though... I've watched this video three times and I'm still tearing up when I watch it. She's cringe-worthy, then adorable, then stunning, then adorable. So sweet.

Snapshot Sunday

Embroidery bags.

Poetry (Jellicle Cats) on fridge.

How it began.

I Candy is up.

Kyre's up!

Ramblings is up.

Heart Rockin' Family is up.

Sunny's up.

And here's Ashley, joining us for the first time!

Gina's up!

Bird-watching.

Yesterday we were in a funk. The girls were a'fussin' and a'feudin' and Gray was teething. I dug around in my stash of emergency distractors and found a book on identifying Idaho's birds that I'd gotten about a month back. I'd meant to stick it in a field bag, but I haven't gotten around to making one yet. I grabbed it out, went into the room where the girls were sniping at each other (understand that their sniping was them feeding off of my on-edge-cabin-fever-my-poor-baby's-in-pain energy), sat down on the couch and started flipping through it.

It took all of seven seconds for them to be on top of me, asking what I was looking at. About ten minutes later, the sun came out for the first time that day, the wind died down to a breeze, and we headed out to see what birds we could find (expending energy was a nice side-effect). I looked over at Hannah as we were walking along and had to snap this picture.

We found a Yellow-Headed Blackbird which was a surprise this early. They usually don't show up until a few weeks from now when the cattails are starting to grow. They're pretty birds and we'll see them by the hundreds in the summer.

We heard a really pretty call, which I'd always assumed was the Yellow-Headed Blackbird, but the book said that their call is "low, hoarse, raspy, or metallic" - definitely not what we were hearing, so we went on a bird-hunting mission. We followed the cry and found this guy - a Western Meadowlark. His yellow breast and black necktie were really clear. Our book organizes birds by the most prominent color, so we flipped to the yellow section and there he was, singing his heart out. I think I'm kind of addicted to this now. I wish my camera battery hadn't died - I could have gotten some pictures.

I went back and compared our owl pictures and hawk pictures to the birds in the book, so we're adding Great Horned Owl and Red Tailed Hawk to the list.

Today Hannah and I went to town to vacuum the car and she brought the book. She might be hooked too. Today we added Rock Pigeon and Red-Winged Blackbird to our list. Whee!

About the puppy... he's getting along like a house on fire here. He's very intelligent which has made training easier than expected - I'm used to working with Border Collies (she says in a snobby voice) - and he's got a really pleasant personality.

The first week he was here, he thought that the cats were fun to chase. Aradia and Gandhi quickly decided that ignoring him was the best option and he quickly decided that getting a claw in his nose for trying to make them notice him wasn't so much fun. The kittens took awhile longer to get the "he's really not a danger" message, but once they got it, he got willing playmates. That gray kitten will sneak up behind him and claw him in the rear and then sit there letting the puppy run in a circle around him, popping him on the nose every few seconds just to keep him interested. The orange and white kitten stalks him constantly but doesn't decide until the last minute whether to attack or caress. It's fun to watch them play together.

Ains (upon getting in a hot bathtub): "Hot Tamayees!

Hannah:
(sadly) "When will I ever grow up?"
Well, you're in the middle of growing up right now. Why do you want to grow up?
"I want to see what my flock of children will be like."

Ains:
(to Hannah, pointing to two different computers) "You pay 'puter game, me pay 'puter game"
Mother: Where will I play a computer game? (there are only two computers, after all)
Ains: "No Momma. You do dish!"
Nice.

Painting Princesses

How to Draw Princesses and Ballerinas. My niece Jay owned this book and Hannah pored over it. When we got home, she asked me to get out her watercolors and her painting paper and she drew princesses and ballerinas.

The first had a beautiful ruby crown and .... duck feet?

The second had a very "esspressive" face and distinct fingers.

The third had a ponytail and discernible facial features. And big toes.

Some firsts for her here. Phalanges, facial features, different hairstyles. Fun stuff.

Right this minute...

we're playing our first outside game of hide-and-go-seek in over five months.

The best picnic ever.

Hannah worked hard on this, "The best picnic ever in the history of the world. Including all of Idaho and Arizona."

An hour of work, precisely placed dishes, teacups, and flowers. Her presentation was slightly marred by a younger sister trying to help pour the water from the teapot (hence the water spills on the blanket and floor), but she was too excited by the possibility of hosting 'the best picnic ever' to care too much.

She thought of everything.

Including enough food for the puppy.

And we enjoyed ourselves very much.

It truly was the best picnic ever in the history of the world, including Idaho and Arizona. And, I daresay, Hawaii.