We had a visitor at breakfast this morning

Sophie brought in some crape myrtle branches last night to make a bouquet for the table, so he must have spent the night inside. After we photographed and played with him a bit we put him back outside.

Also on the camera:





Anna helped Julia put on her (too small) shoes. :)

Nature Walk in September

I took the little girls and my new camera to the Nature Center this afternoon. The weather was beautiful.

All my shots of Anna are action shots.











We found raccoon tracks.












The water is very low.























Checking out the wildflowers.












There was a big black snake near the water, I don't know what type of snake it was. It got frightened and ran away when I tried to get closer.








I still have some work to do figuring out my new camera. I think this was a great photo op, mostly lost. Better luck next time.

Anna loves the chickens

And Julia loves the sunshine.

Thursday Shenanigans

On this rainy, dreary, inside morning I was in the kitchen making pancakes while the girls, who were supposed to be getting dressed, were arguing in the living room. I heard Sophie shouting "Ellie, you take me off that list right now!" so I went to investigate. I found Ellie prancing around with the following paper and taunting her sisters:


I confiscated it like a good teacher, but I couldn't help giggling at Eleanor's phonetic spelling of "crimnuls", "cuoot" and "jooleu". What a stinker.

Sophie, in her never-ending quest to master every bit of information the world has to offer about horses, immediately went back to her reading about horse evolution and telling me at great length what a shame it is that those tiny rabbit-sized horse ancestors in her book are now extinct so we can't get one.

Meanwhile, Anna and Julia were in the kitchen squabbling over their favorite toy oven rack. Anna won, of course, but Julia is learning to fight back and I'm sure will soon become a force to be reckoned with.

More February Photos

Sophia's birthday celebration (2/15):






And some cute pictures of Julia that Sophia took the next day:

February So Far

February is Birthday Month at the Jacobs Circus. This year Anna turned 4 (2/6).


Ellie made her a special crown for the occasion.

She was too focused on her new sticker book to smile for the camera.

We had snow two consecutive weeks, which brought such fun as snow days and late night calls to the towing company to have Tony's Fit rescued from a giant drift.
Abby loves snow and thinks it was all for her benefit.
Julia had the next birthday (2/13), the big fat One. She is the World's Most Beloved Baby, and brings joy everywhere she goes.

Julia woke up from her nap the other day with such awesome bed head that it needed to be photographed.
Today is Sophia's 10th birthday, so I'll try to post more photos later...it may be a few days before I get around to it. :)

January Park Day

We needed some fresh air and exercise today, so we went to the park. Sophie and Ellie made some new friends and played for a long time, but forgot to ask what the other kids' names were. Anna decided to take herself to the potty and wandered off looking for one, luckily I found her not too far away. Mostly it was a great day, although I do wish sometimes that Anna wasn't such a go-getter. Keeping up with her is more than I can take most days.