Wild Kingdom

Funny, we right now live in a state that most people think of as being quite wild and natural, and most of it may be. But here in our little quasi-urban area it is decidedly not so. Our yard and immediate outside area here rate at the bottom of the list of places we've lived so far, in terms of wildlife sightings. There are no squirrels! A few birds, mostly pigeon-dove types. Lots of roaming cats. But that's about it on a regular basis. So today it was really exciting to spot this pretty gal 

 

and her two fawns(!) in the neighbor's driveway when we got back from school today. And later, while in the garden, I heard a rustling at the back fence, and spotted this funny sight:  

 

Poor little guy had just escaped a cat, who I could see pacing on the other side. I don't know which waited out the other; mouse was still up there when we went in. 

And for the indoor wildlife report, I give you this current situation: 

 

and these moments from earlier in the day: 

which could be entitled something like "moments of angelic creativity" or "the calm before the storm." Minutes after each photo was taken there was a flood of water on the kitchen floor and a whole lot of paint, well, everywhere, respectively. I love letting my kiddos do creative, free-form things, I really do. And Caroline probably does more at an earlier are than the other two did, either by personality or sheer availability of big-kid supplies, but OMG do I have to put on my patient hat when we get into this stuff, because I usually have to spend as much time cleaning up as she did on the activity. But I'm not complaining - she can correctly name all the colors now and I think that's pretty good for 21 months. 

And she really, really wanted to give those deer and that mouse big, big hugs.