Welcome Barker

  We have adopted yet another new family member.  Barker, a Great Pyrenees mix, came to us two weeks ago from a rescue group.  He is 14-15 weeks old, and he's so far been great.  He's pretty mellow for a pup, and he really loves playing with the kids.  It's nice to have a dog in the house again.  Though we are working on house breaking, which has been a bit of a tough sell, but I think he's starting to get it.

Toodles the cat is still adjusting.  We set up the office so that there's a gate, which she can get through but he can't.  She would probably be better adapted to him by now if there weren't a couple of chases through the house.  I think she'll eventually figure out that a good paw swipe will take care of it.

The kids love the dog though.  We take him lots of places.  This past week he went with us to watch trout be released for stocking in a local pond.  The kids had a great time.  They both got to dump in buckets of fish.  Neither one of them are very squeamish.

I also took a couple days off over April break and we did some fun family activities.  We went to the Maine State Museum, probably my favorite museum in the region, and we went to the Children's Museum.  I took one of my favorite pics of Ani that I've taken in a while...

And finally Ryan got black mulch and mulched in all around our house.  Gav, being Gav, played in the pile for a couple of hours.  He bears a striking resemblance to those old photos of little kids who worked in the coal mines.  But he's much better fed.

Parade of Magical Creatures

  I've floundered again and neglected the blog.  It's because the kids keep us so busy, but that's no excuse. The good news is I'vebeen collecting stories.  Lately Annah has been outshining Gav a bit with the one-liners, so I'll put him first to make up for that.  He woke up the other day with a stiff neck.  After I got over the hypochondriac reaction of thoughts of meningitis, it was fairly amusing watching him all day.  At one point I saw him laying on the floor drinking water.  He explained it was easier than bending his neck. He's over it now.  

We have had a parade of magical creatures trump through our house recently.  The Easter Bunny was the most recent, but we also had a leprechaun infestation, as you can see. They're quite rude, they don't flush, and they leave green footprints on the seat. At least they dropped some chocolate coins.  Oh, and they drank out of the milk, turning it green.  Disgusting.

Here they are with The Bunny.  Gavin gave him a hug. Annah kept him at army's length.

The kids have been playing together more.  Today they were doing foot painting, which is using your feet to paint, not painting your feet.  The other day they were playing with their toy Easter bunnies and giving them time outs for biting.  They were being a bit mean about it.  It can be a bit of an ugly mirror watching them discipline their toys.

And Gavin is now paying his share of the food bill by driving fire truck.

Annah has been enjoying the ladybug infestation we are having.  I'm glad they are bringing someone joy.  But I feel just a little bad for them when I watch her play.  Today she was singing "I love you ladybug!" While simultaneously painting and drowning it.  And a week ago, even though I am fairly certain the word she used was "pick", we could have both sworn she cheerlily exclaimed "Ladybug, I'm going to f*ck you up!" Even if it was a mispeak, it was the honest truth.

Annah also has developed a sense of style.  It may not be typical, but I have learned not to argue.  She frequently wakes up and announces that she wants to wear "Dis, and dis!" (this, and this), meaning her PJ's. fine.  One day she wore a bathing suit to school.  Though I did insist on bottoms, so she just wore her PJ pants.