Animal Crazy.... and just plain crazy!

Marian's very favorite thing about being here is all the animals. She is truly crazy about animals. she loves them... all of them. Not just the cute and cuddly ones either. She likes the reptiles and other funky things just as much. Well, almost. She told me today that kittens are her favorite animal, and lizards are her second favorite. She likes to hold the chickens because they are soft like a kitten though. Conversations with her are always interesting! Today she had the best day ever because it involved her most favorite animals!

We went to her friend Eva's house, and Eva has 2 kittens. I admit, they might be the cutest kittens I have ever seen, and Marian spent about 3 hours just holding and playing with them. She was so happy. The kittens seemed content to be mauled with love as well, so it was a mutual adoration.

Once we got home from Eva's house, Marian didn't quite make it into the house. She saw her nemesis, the lizard! She has been trying to catch this guy (or his friend) for a while now, and today she was finally successful.

But wait! It gets even better!

She found a frog as well! I love this kid. She is so great. She catches her little animals and is so careful about letting them go when she's done playing with them. So the lizard and frog were released back into the wild and Marian was thrilled with her day.

Until now, this had been her favorite moment. While they were canoeing last week, she got to see a lot of animals, but this butterfly was the only one she got a close-up of. Pretty cool, hey?!

And now we move from the animal craziness and into the general category of it......

This was the floor in my room all last week. Joshua slept on the twin bed you can see on the left. I slept on the futon bed that you can barely see in the top right corner. Delaney was ensconced in the corner you can't see, in her porta-crib, and these 3 girls sacked out on the floor. That is Callie, Marian, and cousin Katie. Most nights they went to bed pretty well, but there were one or two that made me about lose my mind (and my tempter!).

Joshua is crazy about Legos. He brought a couple here with us and has had fun with them. I never would have thought of combining Indiana Jones with SpongeBob, but Joshua seems to be having fun.

This is the "Awwww" moment for the day. My baby brother is now a Dad and this is his 5 week old baby. So cute. The kids all loved her and were very sweet and gentle. Callie was so pleased to get to hold her.

Uncle Monkey is crazy! And the kids are more than crazy for Uncle Monkey! I'm so glad I got to see almost all my siblings this past week. Everyone has left but Deborah and her 2 minions, so its not too dull yet, but the house is definitely quieter! 12 adults, 12 kids squished into the house was a lot, but it wasn't too bad. And it was a lot of fun!