Kittens, Owls and Zombies

We are home from vacation and settling back into life here. After very efficiently unpacking the van as soon as we pulled into the driveway and vacuuming it the next morning, my ambition ended. It's been 5 days and my suitcase is still laying on my bedroom floor, only half unpacked. 

We got back just a few days before Tanner's birthday so I feel like I hit the ground running. We'd been wanting to add a couple of kittens to our family for awhile. We've always had multiple cats but for the past year or so we've only had one and since she has no tolerance for the dog, she's been lonely. It's been a long time since we've had kittens so Tanner decided she wanted a kitten for her birthday. Since we are all moved and mostly settled, it seemed like an ok time so we surprised her with a trip to a shelter and picked out two sweet kitties. 

Eleanor is Tanner's kitty. We were planning on two kittens but Eleanor, who's two, was just so sweet and fluffy Tanner fell in love.

And Seraphina is Aravis's. Eleanor is a little nervous and shy but, like a typical kitten, Seraphina has made herself right at home exploring everywhere. So far we've been keeping them separate from the rest of the animals but we're working on slowly introducing them. So far things look promising. 

Since we just moved here and had only recently returned from vacation we had a very low key birthday for Tanner. We grabbed Chipotle for dinner and a store bought cake.

We had cake on the patio while the kids swam. It was a nice family evening. 

And its not a typical day in our house if someone is not dressed up and in stage make up. 

Tanner turned Aravis into a zombie. She used toilet paper to create the rotting flesh.

This has been Xury's outfit of choice for several days. She has a very strong need to be a "pintet" (princess). Which means wearing anything that twirls. She often goes to sleep in a dress because she must be a "pintet".

She's also been experimenting with paints.

Since moving here, we've seen all kinds of wildlife. We've seen snakes in the yard. The kids found a crab in the backyard. We have frogs and tadpoles by our front door but we were not expecting this cute little screech owl to somehow make his way into our screen room. 

We're still not sure how he got in. Someone from animal services came and safely released him back outside but it was fun watching him while he was here.