Anthony squashed a bowl of marshmallows together to make one big, glee-inducing monster marshmallow.

Cousin Josh soon followed suit, with a smaller monster marshmallow more appropriate to his four years. I asked whether I could take a picture, to which he replied "No, thank you.", and I gave him a sad look and said that I wanted to show a picture of his marshmallow to his Daddy (who didn't make the trip up this time), and after a bit Josh relented and displayed his creation for the camera...

I don't normally ask the kids about photos, but when I do, [...]

For the longest time this morning Jena kept walking on Josh (both are Anthony's cousins), falling down, and almost singing in her cute 22-month-old voice "Sooooory Josh". The glee in her voice belied the meaning. Clearly, she's well prepared for her role as "Sister".

Eventually, she felt just climbing up herself wasn't enough, so started looking for ways to up her game...

Eventually she stopped, and after a bit Josh looks back and says "Jena, climb on Josh's back, please".

The birds always hound us for snacks whenever and wherever they see us, such as I've posted about here, here, and here, among others. But when Jena stepped up to feed them, I had to take a picture.

I then spent a few minutes outside with my Voigtländer 125mm f/2.5 macro, and a chickadee obliged to come around...

Unfortunately, the scene was dark and backlit -- not a great situation for a black & white bird -- and this one was moulting so it's really scruffy, so the result is lacking on many fronts.

I didn't want to spend more [...]

My Dad, sister, and I went out for the evening to play trivia (and as part of a group of Very Knowledgeable People, ranked in the top 10 in the nation for most games), so that left Mom watching the kids. (Thanks Mom!). As grandmas are wont to do, she spoiled them and allowed the older pair to stay up way past their bedtime, so they were still up when we returned.

They had amused themselves all evening with a race-track toy, and for some reason Anthony had built a silly tower over it. (Clearly, engineering is not his strong [...]

Monday started off busy, with a visit to a bounce house, "Monster Play", some baseball, and walks by the lake, but it ended with even more activity.

I wrote the other day about clearing a tree that had fallen in my folks' backyard. I'd written in the other posts that it was a sumac, but Ron's comment that it seemed to be the similar-looking Tree of Heaven prompted my mom to look into it further, and she's decided he's right. It does seem to match better than sumac... Wikipedia says it can reach a height of 27 meters, and I [...]