Morgan's Third Birthday Party

Our little friend Morgan turned three today. She is exactly six weeks younger than Sullivan. :o) We went to Morgan's birthday party in Corvallis.

We bought Morgan a big, metal dump truck for her birthday.

The carousel cake with the birthday girl in the background.

Sully only ate the frosting. Of course.

The view from Ginger's deck. Yep, that's a big creek/small river down there!

I sometimes feel that we live amongst the trees...and then I remember where Ginger lives. This is some serious tree living!! Gorgeous setting.

We headed to the local high school to set off a rocket. Pretty setting for a school, huh?

Phoebe is the daredevil at the top.

The birthday girl, climbing up after her big sister.

Morgan. Cutie.

Couldn't decide which was cuter so posted both in order for Ginger to take whichever she wants.

A very tired Sully sitting on Daddy's lap while they wait for another rocket launch.

Phoebe & Ginger waiting for the launch.

You can see that the rocket is just about to blast off in this shot.

Keats & Daddy, waiting for another launch.

Phoebe putting the "dump" part of the truck to work. ;o)

Day At The Zoo

I dropped Keats off at summer camp and Sully and I headed to Portland for the day. We ended up at the zoo since it was such a nice day. Sully liked the zoo a lot more this time, for sure. He was just amazed & thrilled to see how BIG the elephants were and the giraffe was...seeing that amazement in his face & seeing him so giddy makes the two hours of travel worth it!

He's inspecting the squirrel statue and the lunch box full of peanuts...but I took the pic because he just looked so cute with his Wonder Pets backpack and baseball hat. ;o)

It was a day for impressions and mimicking. Here, Sully is roaring like the lion in the poster behind him....

...now he is showing what the monkeys looked like when they jumped around...

...and this is his impression of a bat.

He squealed with delight when he realized this was a real turtle and that it was eating "beans" as Sully called it. (Turtle was actually eating salad.)

Bikes & Silly Daddy

We took Keats out to ride his bike after school today so I could get some still shots of him riding. He is doing so great! The pride he feels is very evident on his beaming face!

No idea what Sully was doing/saying here but it sure was cute!

Daddy'o had the great idea to put a diaper on his head to get Sully out of a funk the other night. It sure was funny...but now Sully tries to put them on his head pretty much every other hour. ;o)

Newfound Freedom

Brillo & Prince

These are the two unluckiest (luckiest if you consider that they were saved) of the kittens from the rescue a couple of weeks ago:

The first pic shows "Prince" as he is being called by his foster family. Actually, they named her "Alice" at first...and then learned he's not a she. ;o) So, they went with Prince.

Prince was probably thrown out of a car, along with his sibling; his sibling was hit & killed by a car. The foster mom saw Prince near the dead kitten and made the connection that they were probably siblings. Prince had a limp that the vet thought was consistent with being thrown from a vehicle. So, Prince was FILTHY. Renee, the foster mommy, was shocked with how white he became with washing! He's gorgeous and appears healthy, though he's slow to warm up to other animals. Very sweet to people though.

This little bugger is Brillo. His fur is very, very coarse...so he is named after a Brillo Pad. This was the kitten that was being kicked by a group of kids when he was about 4 weeks old. He had the most horrible eye infection- both eyes- that we couldn't even take his picture! He looked awful. These are the first time I've actually seen his eyes. Anyhoo, it was rough going at first, the vet thought Brillo may lose one or both eyes, but he seems to be on an uphill swing now. He is about 7 weeks old, which means he was born right around Michelle's birthday. That right there should give me enough leverage to talk Mike into adopting him...but I'm trying to be reasonable so am not thinking of keeping him at this point.

But, come on! Michelle's birthday? A kitty saved from abuse when it weighed a whopping ONE POUND? Sheesh.

These two have become good buddies. It would be great if they were adopted together!

Journey

A few days ago, I took a couple of new trails (near our home) with a friend. I discovered that there were many, many blackberries just waiting to be picked (by me!). Today, Sully and I made the journey. He had so much fun! He gets so into the hunt for berries and he isn't at all afraid to help pick his share of the fruit. Twice he was snagged by a stickery-branch and both times his reaction was perfect: he stopped immediately and said "Help, Mommy!" and waited while I untangled him. No trauma, no drama. :o)

Two of Sullivan's favorite things: blackberries & wishes to blow!

He started to blow this wish...

...then he said, "No! I not blow. I'm a lion--ROAR." Lol

Oh, the places his mean old mom makes him go! Actually, he didn't even once ask to be carried. What a trooper!

Sunshine on fresh berries...and a yummy sucker to boot!

Summer Camp & Indoor Park Play

Keats has to wear the green vest when he is in class at the NW Kids Club. Here is is this morning, acting silly & saying he's "too shy" to get up. He LOVES the attention...especially from the girls!

Evolution of a Bounce House

Uber excitement!

Anticipation!

And GO!!!

Utter joy.

You can dig for ancient dino bodies...

...and, apparently, ancient horse excavation can be done as well...???

True that!!

Just cracks me up how, if the container fits in his mouth, it goes in his mouth.