Busy as beavers...

I was just sitting here, organizing photos, when I realized that I never showed you this 7+ inch brook trout that our oldest caught a week or so ago...oops! He was pretty darn proud, since he hasn't caught nearly as many fish as his little brother this summer. There were also some really gross shots (That I didn't realize that they had taken with my camera!) of the fish-cleaning process. I could have done without seeing those!

Sunday morning they spent a couple of hours building a super-tall (that's a 5-foot tape measure.) Bionicle.

We have some new neighbors! A beaver couple has take up residence in our little pond - and they are expanding their new home!! The boys and I think it is soooo cool, but Dad doesn't. He is very concerned, rightly so, about the fate of our driveway, which is downstream from the pond. I just hope that we can manage to find a balance where we can get in and out with our vehicles and the beavers can have a happy home. They've done such a lot of work, in a short amount of time - it's really neat to watch. We've seen them a couple of times now - they're huge!! Of course, never when I have my camera out, after all, it's a 'wildlife repeller'...

While waiting for the bus this morning, our oldest taught his little brother how to make an Origami cup. They love making paper projects like that.

Look what I learned to do today:

Make my own leather poppers! I love to make my own lead ropes and reins, but buying the poppers made them cost-prohibitive. I always thought they looked so simple that surely I could make them myself, but I never got around to figuring them out. A little 'Googling' took me to this book, I got down some old reins that needed a new job and ta daa - poppers! Not only that, they're black, which I could never find for sale anywhere. So, I made myself a pink lunge-line, a black mecate and a purple lead rope for Lily!!

Well, the little guy just came into my office with a bloody mouth, holding out another tooth! That's 2 this week. On Friday, after his doctor's appt, we went to Wal-mart to fill his prescription. I came out of the ladies' room to see him standing there with blood all over, holding out a tooth!! Not the best place to lose it, since everyone was staring at us as I got him cleaned up, but he was pretty proud. Now, he's missing both top front teeth and is running around chanting "I'm bery, bery, bery, bery, bery happy that I got that tooth out!!"