Monday, June 23, 2008

she cares about critters

Yesterday Eric came over to see Anna and said, as he walked into the house, "Your house is turning into a zoo!" We have on our kitchen counter at the moment a 5 gallon tank with a tad-pole in it (which Anna caught from the pond at a local plant nursery on Saturday), a beta-fish, and some sort of plastic terrarium housing a worm and snail experiment. Plus another 20 gallon tank with 18 fish in it. And that's just the kitchen/dining room. The tad-pole is actually pretty cool; he's got two teeeeeny little back legs sprouting already.

So yes, my kiddo is an animal nut. And now her summer nanny has introduced her to a group (flock? pack? herd?) of Yellow-bellied Marmots living along the river in Riverfront Park. Pretty much every day now they go and feed them; Anna was very worried that they would starve if we didn't feed them at least once over the weekend. As you can see, they are very malnourished! That one, I swear, must weigh at least 25 pounds!

Here she is wearing her "I care about critters" t-shirt, which is her new absolute favorite thing to wear. For those of you who don't know, this shirt has a drawing done by my father, who was a talented artist and animal lover. Just like Anna. Unfortunately, she never met him; he died in 1981. My sister Jodi took one of his drawings and had it put on to t-shirts for all of us a few years ago. It's a pen and ink drawing of a tough-looking cowboy, hand-feeding a grasshopper to a baby bird, and it says "I care about critters". I love that she loves this shirt, drawn by her grandpa. And it certainly pertains to her! I wish we had it in every color; she'd wear it every day if she could.

In other weekend news, David put up my window flower baskets. It's looking pretty darn cute, if I do say so myself. (click on the photo to get to see the ORANGE flowers I put in there.) We spend so much time on the front porch that yesterday a neighbor kidded us about hauling our bed out there. That's not a bad idea. It's just such a nice way to connect with the neighbors; practically everyone who comes by stops to chat about the amount of work we've done. Yesterday alone we took 3 different people through the house for a tour. Anna, the little entrepeneur, suggested we start selling lemonade and cookies when people stop by for a look! She is, afterall, saving up for a horse someday.


And now for something completely random:

This morning, on my way to work, I saw that there is a new Presidential Library in the tiny reservation town of Worley! Look! According to the sign on the back, CIA Headquarters is located in the basement of this building.

12 comments:

Jodi said...

I love seeing her in that shirt! We can always have more made you know. I wouldn't mind having a few more myself. She's turning out a lot like her grampa isn't she?

Love the house! The windows boxes add the finishing touch!

Love the outhouse, how funny is that? Did you wet yourself laughing????

kate said...

I'd LOVE to have more of those shirts made! Maybe we can do that when Lala and I are there in July. Didn't you have to order like, 200 of them or something crazy? Actually, I know a craft-trick to make our own (you can buy that iron-on transfer stuff at Michael's.)

Oh yeah, I did about wet my pants. I damn near totalled my car slamming on the breaks to turn around. Luckily I have learned to have the camera with me at all times. Ya just never know.

Jodi said...

Yep, I take my camera with me too. There's always something going on!

JACKI said...

"summer nanny".... phffft. Look at you! Does she go along with you to your house in the Hamptons too??? Kidding! I just had to tease because thats the first thing I thought of when I read "summer nanny".

The house is looken so cute! It totally fits your spunky personality. Love it!

I laughed so hard at the outhouse. That needs to be circulated in an e-mail. LMAO!!!!!

Jodi said...

The olny thing that could have made that picture better is if they had left the first R off and called it a Libary

kate said...

Well Miss Smarty-pants, "babysitter" doesn't seem right when we're talking about an 8year old. And yes, she DOES go to the Hamptons with us. But only when we have room on our plane.

pppppttttthhhhhh. :)

Dee said...

I LOVE seeing Anna wearing that Tshirt and love that it's her fav.

The house looks beautiful and the planters and porch furniture look just perfect. And that's what porches are for, neighbors chatting and enjoying being out there.

You North Idaho and Washington people are so small minded------the library should be larger.

Linda said...

Jeebus Cristy! I bout wet my pants! Anna really needs to start working on her biology degree. She not only loves the critters, but she seems to love the scientific aspect of what makes it all work.

...

-sigh- (I thought I had one like that too...)

Linda said...

sorry - bout wet my pants about the outhouse. Not Anna.

Dee said...

new pic , Kate. Cute, as usual.

Anonymous said...

What the heck are those things? They are in the wild? They are cute in an odd sort of way.

Jodi said...

Ok, now about that picture. When it's enlarged, it's adorable but the smaller version that shows on your blog is scary. You look like you have wicked eyes.