Birds

 
Here’s Gryphon’s “Family Portrait before Alice” (with Momma in black, Gryphon in blue, Daddy in green, and Bijou in gray and blue at the bottom)
 
The kids enjoyed gobbling up some Angry Birds on Friday morning.
 

I added a workbench to the garage while the children played on Danger Swing.
 
 
Robins, sparrows, and Evening Grosbeaks have been visiting the yard lately.
 

Momma comes home

Cheri had a fun time in New Mexico, visiting Grandmommy and drinking margaritas with The Ladies (and Uncle Mark).
 
Cousin Carissa is expecting baby Caiden sometime soon.  The parrot at the Blue Stone, where Cheri splurges on turquoise every two or three years, apparently missed her.
 
 
 
Gryphon embelished his self-portrait with a mustache sticker from his cousins.  The kids were eager to show Cheri the Danger Swing.
 

A week without Momma

Cheri headed to New Mexico with her mom for a week.  Luckily Nanna and Dar Dar swooped in to help with the children.
 
 
We saw a raccoon asleep on a branch behind the house today.
 
The week had a lot of cookies and playing and reading and drywall.

Danger Swing

 
Gryphon’s not the best eater (unless we’re having grilled cheese, quesadillas, macaroni and cheese, or some other synonym), so we’ve been distracting him with dinnertime art projects.  The most recent of these have been mazes - the first one didn’t take him long, so I upped the challenge with the second one (can you do it?).
 
 
The living room window has provided all kinds of entertainment lately.
 
 
I moved the swing to a new location, and it got the name “Danger Swing” due to the nearby alder stump.  No injuries so far.
 

Antics

Lately we’ve been dressing as pteranodons, watching birds,
 
eating popcorn and smoothies,
 
making pancakes and finding newts.
 
The pottery the kids glazed came out of the kiln.
 
Alice spent a few nights in her “little bed” in our room, having contracted Cheri’s cold (Gryphon and I are still safe)
 
We made some Pokémon pancakes,
  
and I put up the last piece of drywall I had (Dad’s bringing more soon).
 
I removed last year’s Fiverr gigs from my computer to make space – here are some highlights: