Birds and Bees

Okay, true, it's really a ladybug, but that's because the visiting bee didn't stick around long enough to me to snap it's picture.

The bluebird was puzzling because I've only seen one here before. He was perched in a spot with other trees between where I could see him without a screen and I had an internal argument over if he was actually blue or if he was a robin- the glare on the glass with the screen behind it gave me just enough pause. I snapped a shot then I moved to a different window and he spooked. I had to check the photo to be sure, but there he is! And you guys, then he came back! He's zooming around from the trees down to the grass and then back up again. 

Liam still loves everything yellow, except bananas, and especially goldfinches. This was was sweet enough to pose. 

And our crazy robins are back, nesting above the floodlight on the deck out back which means they spook every time we put the dog out and there is a feathered bombshell swooping past your head and bird poop all over the deck. "Some horrid bird..." I swear between the robins and the phoebes out back there is not a minute of peace from before dawn until bedtime. You know other birds are grumbling, "tell that Phoebe, whoever she is, to get home already so they stop calling her!

Not sure who this huge guy is, but he's having a wild ride in our 20-30 mph winds today. He keeps streaking past, just steering, making huge circles as he's buffeted. I hope he doesn't take out the guy measuring off his roof of the big red shed we can see from our back yard...

Down on the Farm

I am trying to clean, so we got out the farm and all the Little People in hopes that he'd stay busy. It didn't work for long, but he WAS pretty cute... the second one looks pretty tentative, but he was trying to say, "cheeeeeeeese" and smile at the same time.

This one he's impersonating Swedish Chef. Just kidding. He was ready to throw the ladybug which migrated down here from the bathtub, and it was quickly followed by the windmill.

Carrie is laughing with glee...

... and by that I mean she is practically howling. She let out this laugh that I'm pretty sure Nana could hear.

I walked her home from Jillian's house and I'm telling her about this dream I just had. See, I have this gift of drinking an entire can of Mountain Dew (which I don't do very often, so it's no cause for concern) and then promptly falling asleep. It doesn't matter if it's naptime or bedtime. I guess all that sugar and caffeine just causes an immediate system shutdown. So I had this lucid, crazy dream after my Mountain Dew and I'm telling her about it, we're walking, I'm talking, we make it in the house, and Carrie announces, "Mama, you let in a ladybug."

This is the second time she's interrupted me telling her about the dream, so exasperatedly I look around, the mail in one hand and my skirt in the other (it's the long, flowy, blue one so many of you have liked through the years) and I'm turning around, checking the front door for the ladybug.

She is starting to crack up, "Mama, Mama, you let in a ladybug!" I can't for the life of me find it on the door, so I turn back around to face her. She TURNS ME around again and there it is.

On my bum. Or rather, on the very edge of the hem of my shirt, which hangs down onto my bum.

Can you hear Carrie? She's still giggling and saying, "we have GOT to tell Dada about this!"

We found it after it flew around the house and she helped return it to the great outdoors, after telling me several times that, "a ladybug wants to join our family!"

...

Now I hear that Liam is up, and he told us, "I am using the laundry basket (that had clean kid laundry in it, folded and everything, alas) for my boat." Two minutes later it is, "Mama, I am using the laundry basket to be a ghost!"

Can you tell Halloween is fast approaching?

I just asked, "what happened to the laundry that was in it?" And he told me.

"I don't know. It came out."