Poodle and People Pictures

Just putting up some cute pictures of people with poodles. Consider yourself lucky. Here is Eli with a poodle. It's either Stevie or Bella.



Here are the poodles in one of their favorite places - Mommy's lap. Once the kids are in bed, if we sit down in the reading area the poodles are right there, waiting for a chance to relax on a lap.



Koleman can get them to lay down nicely with him, too.



Eli prefers a more physical approach to interacting with the puppies. He thinks it's very funny that he can get them to jump in the air.

A Message to all the Haters

To all of you haters out there who mocked and ridiculed my poodle gate, I just want you to know that it still stands. It continues to be an impenetrable defense against invading hordes of poodles. The living room remains a safe haven.



(You will also note that Stevie is attempting to torture a duck to learn how to get past the gate, but the duck ain't talking.)

Ha.

Holy Bees!

A couple of weeks ago we had to deal with an invasion of bees. Michelle noticed a lot of bees going into a container which held the cushions for our old (and unused all summer) patio set. Opening the container up revealed a lovely surprise - a bee hive!



Here's a slightly closer look at the hive. The opening in the middle isn't their doing - it's where I sprayed the nasty bee killing stuff. The bees tried to escape, but only got a short distance before collapsing and dying a relatively quick, but hopefully painful, death.

The kids were actually quite concerned about me going out to battle the bees. They all said "Good bye" to me in a manner which made me suspect that they didn't think I would return alive.



I took off the top cushion, and this was left. There were lots of little squirming bee larvae (or whatever they're called). Their protective layer of mucus must offer some defense against the killing juice.



The hive is gone, the bees are dead, the cushions are ruined, and life has returned to normal.

Well, as normal as it can be in our house.

A Blog Response To Charlie

Charlie noted that he went to the State Fair and got a bucket of Sweet Martha's cookies. I would like him to know that I also got a bucket of Sweet Martha's cookies today, and didn't even have to get within 60 miles of a place described as "warm", "smelly", and with "thousands of annoying people crowding the streets."



So there.

Bridge To Nowhere

OK, I'll give them credit - they made a tall bridge. I just don't see that it's very practical, however. I mean, let's be honest - how do you get on the darn thing? And once you're there, what do you do besides plummet to your death?

Summer Fun!

OK, maybe not. Anyway, I saw these pictures, and thought it was nice to remember how much snow we got this winter. Here are two snow explorers on top of a giant hill.



Kind and loving Grandpa Gary watches the kids play in the snow.



Wait a second! It looks like kind and loving Grandpa Gary is getting ready to throw a snowball at a poor, innocent, defenseless child. How sad.



Milena guards the entrance to her Fortress of Solitude, but fails to see Kelson as he begins a sneaky and treacherous descent.

Haircuts!

Before...



... and after.



Before...



... and after.



(And no, you can't make a joke about how I looked very different after my haircut. If you are going to make fun of me, at least be clever, original, or horribly offensive.)

Pirates!

Koleman was in another Prairie Fire Theater play this summer - "Peter Pan." He was a vicious pirate. Here he is with some other pirates.



And here he is with two of his good friends. Maggie was also a pirate and McKenna was Tinkerbell.



Eli, Milena and Kelson were so impressed with the play that they would perform different parts of the play in our basement. Kelson got into the full pirate outfit, and was called (if I'm translating this properly) "Skimmer Skimmer Smee."



Milena would generally put on bunny ears, although in this picture she seems to be bunny ear-less. Eli would dress up in a ninja outfit and be "Hot Wheels Ninja."



It's hard to see Eli because ninjas are hard to see.

I don't think they fully understood the Peter Pan story, but at least they had fun.

Killer Poodles!

Guard the women and children!

Koleman and Hannah

There are other places on the internet where you can find authorized pictures of Hannah (daughter of friends of ours), but this is the only place where she is being held by an amazingly handsome nine year old.

There's a reason for this...

I'm sure this signifies something. Something very, very important.



I just don't know what.