Our new digital camera does not take the same quality pictures as the old one.  So I’ve not been as quick or as excited to get them off and put them on the blog…I even had to break out my old SLR Minolta recently to get some exceptional quality photos (the two new ones of Kyler and Rylee on the sidebar came from that roll).  It was fun to shoot a roll of film, to not get any preview and to hear the clicking sound of the old lens grabbing the picture.

In an effort to stay cool, we poured soap in the pool and it was the source of hours of fun (and some very squeaky clean kids):

Rylee also perfected wearing Basil the kitten in her baby sling for hours on end, this new cat is a dream, wears dresses every day…snuggles in bed with the kids….lets Audrey ‘pet’ her:

With our good friends visiting from Phoenix, we discovered something new to do with the playset – since we have a trashed kid friendly back yard and happen to have snow sleds lying around, the kids took them up the slide and then all piled in to ride down.  The laughter and smiles that ensued were priceless and no one ended up seriously injured.  Even better!

We also enjoyed the help of a delightful 10 year old who came to ease my load for a couple of days, she entertained both me and the kids with her candid and darling self, giving me parenting and home-making advice that I in fact wrote down later 🙂 She and the kids cleaned the floors (note their dirty black feet!) and matched hundreds of socks among many other things!

Top three tidbits from our little friend?

1. Upon seeing my mess of  a back yard – “You know, you really should only let them play with one thing at a time out here then make them put it back then it would stay organized”
2. After about 2 hours at my house – “Seriously.  I don’t know how you handle all these kids.”
3. Observing Audrey approaching (see pic below) – “Quick, get a diaper on that girl!  She’s going to pee on my clean floor!!”