While I Was Out

While I was away last week for work, the boys did not (thank goodness) redecorate any rooms in the house. Instead, they conspired to capture bits of their week for me, which I found as a batch of surprise photos on the camera. I enjoyed glimpses of their week, so thought I would post them here for you to see, too.

There are a few hours in the morning between the school bus for older kids and the one for the afternoon kindergarteners. Lars likes to spend time playing on his computer:

Or building new tracks and lining up the trains...

Ross likes to climb trees. Luckily, he's built like a bird so the trees (and the rhododendron he uses as his helicopter and the pine shrub he calls his carriage) don't mind him much. He can go very high!

At some point, Ross took the camera up with him and captured his view from above:

Chris spent the weekend doing unplanned things, like fixing the dishwasher that decided to try a water-free wash approach. While possibly environmentally conscious, it did not turn out to be very aesthetic. The baked on gunk was surely germ free but not appetizing to serve on and the plastic utensils (used in lunchboxes) did not appreciate the new method at all. The photo is also a nice capture of the ultimate flexibility of our kitchen. Oh, that cabinet is in your way? Here, let's just pull it away from the wall so you can get back there!

Chris also scored a nice porch rocker from the people who are moving out across the street!
Finally, we come to Jimmy B, our new pet cricket. Jimmy was found at the school bus stop, in a cricket egg, with his brother, an ant. Jimmy was lovingly transported to school, where officials ensconced Jimmy and his egg in a Ziploc bag for safe keeping. Jimmy's brother, the ant, had disappeared along the way. Here's Jimmy, having made it home and been set up in one of the old spider boxes:

Here are two views of Jimmy's egg, which was open like this when Jimmy and his brother the ant were found inside:

By the time I got home, two days after Jimmy took up residence here, Jimmy had turned invisible (or he's really good at hiding). We still have his habitat set up but he's not visibly in residence. It is unclear if someone forgot to latch the top of the habitat or if Jimmy has simply teleported to freedom. Either way, I hope he had the sense to clear the premises because the exterminators were here at the start of last week, treating the interior (basement) for - you guessed it - crickets.