Bonding with Birdies

Our parakeets were pretty skittish during their first few months in our home . . .

. . . but since summer vacation started,

they've become a bit more comfortable with being picked up

and eating the millet seeds we offer them.

Anna especially has enjoyed training and bonding with our cute little birdies.

When Daniel saw all of the progress Anna was making,

he decided to try working with the birds too.

Tia: Does it worry you that that boy has a sword?

Cici: I thought he just had a blue tail. 

Don't Eat the Planet

I tend to use a virtual background image of the Boston Temple on Zoom calls

because I figure no one wants to see our cluttered basement when they talk with me.

When I went downstairs for my weekly chat with my mom today,

the kids thought it was hilarious to make their faces appear next to the temple.

It was easy for the boys to pop in and out of the image,

but for some reason, it was hard for Anna to make her face visible . . .

. . . until we switched to a satellite view of Earth.

Then the kids started pretending to eat the planet.

Silly kids!

My Catered Birthday

This year, I spent my birthday happily weeding flowerbeds

while my family took care of cooking meals . . .

. . . and baked me some yummy cookies which they served with ice cream

and those irritating candles that you can't blow out.

(Thanks, guys.)

Here's to the old,

and the old at heart!

Daniel's Sword

Daniel's been reading some books about Vikings lately . . .

. . . which is probably why he spent most of today

with his plastic Minecraft sword sheathed on his back

(i.e. stuck down the back collar of his shirt).

Maybe he liked feeling prepared to fend off any fearsome beasts he might encounter . . .

. . . like this toad we saw at our swim lesson.

He probably also thought his sword would come in handy

when he played One Deck Dungeon with his siblings.

Daniel's noble blade might have intimidated the giant scorpion . . .

. . . if his sister's fairy adventurer hadn't made an epic magic roll

and finished the thing off with a single spell.

I guess there's more than one way to kill a scorpion.

(Fun fact: Red Grandma swears that hairspray is a scorpion hunter's best friend.)

Crunchy Carrots at the Beach

Some moms at church organized a ward playgroup

so we can meet up with friends at different parks each week this summer.

Today's destination was Sargisson Beach on the shore of a small local lake.

(I know it's a pond by New England standards, but in my head a pond is an oversized puddle,

not something 30 feet deep you can drive ski boats on.)

The kids decided to toss a ball around in the water,

and somehow Daniel persuaded his friend to give him a boost.

Think fast, Anna!

Before we left, we ate a little picnic lunch on the shore.

One of our carrots dropped on the sand, and Daniel decided to eat it anyway.

He swears that his extra-crunchy carrot was very tasty.

I'll take his word for it.

Birds of All Shapes and Sizes

I recently put a bird feeder out back to attract cute little birds.

I didn't expect a visit from this really BIG bird . . .

. . . but I wasn't surprised that we also attracted a four-footed "bird"

with a furry tail.

Back to Pool Day

We had our first swim lesson of the summer this afternoon.

We're crossing our fingers that summer rainfall will be more moderate this year

so the water won't be so chilly.

Today was warm and a little overcast--perfect swimming weather!

 

Anna took to the water like a fish, but Todd took to it like . . . a nervous human.

He spent the first half of the lesson walking across the shallow end instead of swimming . . .

. . . but our teacher eventually got him paddling into the deep end.

I'd call that a win for the first lesson.