A Sunny Day, a Picnic, and a Funny Game of Ball

 Happy birthday to my sweet Belle!  She spent the night with me Monday, and when asked Tuesday morning what she wanted to do she said she wanted to play with her cousins.  We went to visit them and immediately she became enamored with the animals.  Belle loves animals and would sit  and hold them for hours if they would oblige her.      

The cat quickly became disenchanted with being held, and she jumped up out of reach.  After much coaxing on Belle's part to no avail,  she decided to turn her affections to the dog. 

He enjoyed the attention for a while, and graciously let her hang on as he trotted this way and that until he found something to chase in the woods.

At that point the gig was up, and he took off.

 Belle called after him for a while and then decided to put her efforts into helping Angel Eyes make her own ant farm.

The kids all enjoyed the day.  Here Sweet Cheeks and Scooter are racing home with the mail for their mom,

and Angel Eyes is on her pursuit of ants,

We rounded out the afternoon with an impromptu tea party.  

First we had hot herbal tea, then we tried cold blueberry tea.

They thought pouring was just as fun as drinking the tea.

Friday evening we all got together to play a little ball and have a picnic.  Have you ever tried to have a ball game with 7 kids (we were mean and didn't let the baby play) with ages ranging from 2 to 7?  Let me just tell you it gets wild really quickly, and  anything similar to rules just flies out the window!  However, if it's comedy you are after it can be found at such a game as this!  There are no pictures of the actual game because the picture taker was trying to play and referee at the same time.  I do have a few pictures of the evening though

Finally, the mosquitos took over and we all made our merry way home.  It has been a great few days around here.  How are things in your neck of the woods?