Ella the dog trainer

We got Maggie when Ella was 4 years old. Now Maggie is 3 and Ella is 7.
After we had had Maggie a few months, she began learning some tricks. After the usual sit, lay down, and stay, Ella decided Maggie should learn how to "crawl", since she was a baby dog. Never mind that Maggie ran like the wind, fast as Ella. One of their favorite games being Ella running around the backyard yelling "Maggie chase me!", which Maggie gladly obliged.
After many tries and a few days later, Ella had taught Maggie how to crawl. It starts like "lay down" and then the dog crawls. Amazing. She has also taught her "paw" and "other paw" which is pretty self-explanitory.
The most recent accomplishment is called "Find it". Ella tells Maggie to sit and "wait" which Maggie does while Ella goes in the other room and hides a dog treat. After about 5 seconds, Ella comes back and yells "find it!". Then Maggs goes tearing into the other room, and finds the treat. It amazes me that a little kid can "speak dog" so well, but then, she is a remarkable kid!

sporty spice

The other day, Mason walked in the door with a blue bowling ball. One might think this unusual, but not for Mason.

If there were spice girls that were boys, and they were two year olds, Mason would definitely be "sporty spice". He is 100% boy in the classic definition.
He loves football ("go mountaineers" or "go wavens", depending on which jersey he is wearing)
    loves baggetball (basketball),
    loves bayball (baseball-called my son Sean "bayball" instead of "Sean" when he was first learning to talk)
    loves fishing (which he likes to pretend using dog leashes and the ottoman use your imagination)
    loves fwimmin' (his Mom says he is fearless in the "wah-wu")
Almost every day last week, he brought along a different BALL. One day, football, then a basketball, wednesday was a tennis racket and tennis ball. Maggie immediately claimed the tennis ball, much to Mason's dismay.... He retaliated by using his tennis racket all day long to hit all Maggie's dog toys all around the house. Which Maggie didn't care, such a good dog! He hit the balls like golf balls since i would not let him hit the balls in the air. So it is a new sport right, tennis--golf?
Probably the most random thing Mason has toted over was two ping pong paddles and a ping pong ball. We are pretty sure Maggie totally ate that ping pong ball. Mason and Nell and Van were playing in the other room with it when the ball disappeared. They got flashlights and turned looking for the ping pong ball into a search for "buried treasure" under all the furniture. Which was rewarding on its own and the lost ping pong ball forgotten... ahh... the power of distraction....

re-inventing the camera

So last week, Van brought a little red top to Bobbie's house. The kind that spins when you voop it the right way with your fingers. It was about an inch or two tall. He was really good at vooping it. When it was time to go to carpool, he took it along. When we got back, he realized he had lost it. After searching the van several times in the next few hours, Van decided to make a camera. We were having craft time, seeing what we could make with pipe cleaners, feathers, clothespins and glue. Oh, and googley eyes. Van puts together some stuff and declares it is a camera. He was going to put it in the van, then when its nighttime and the top comes out of its hiding place, it will take a picture and then he would know where the top went. Oh and he would need a flashlight....