Five Kids and Three Dogs

I can definitely empathize with Linda's post in which she described being a little bummed out about "being left behind" to dogsit and, in my case, kid-sit. As of yesterday, at about 1, John and I were given the responsibility of the Schilling kiddos - as Michele and Michael are at a high school church retreat at the coast. Along with the kids came Baxter the puggle - and earlier this week, Koda the lab arrived - the same dog Linda will have for four days while we are gone to Michele's.

The dogs get along quite well. However, Sydney is obviously exasperated with all the attention being diverted away from her. She reminds me of myself sometimes; she's taken to crawling under the side coffee table just to "get away from it all". I relate, honey...

Things were getting a little stir-crazy by mid-day today. Yesterday, the rain had stayed away enough for them to spend a fair amount of time outside, but today, it's been pretty wet. Finally, the clouds broke just long enough for me to walk the whole lot of them down to the school. (John was at a lunch meeting).

This is crazy Koda in her classic happy pose - awaiting (not so patiently) for somebody to chuck the ball. She is relentless in this activity. I can't believe the energy this dog has.

The three girls looking quite innocent. Yesterday, they got quite a tongue-lashing from me discovering them making "cupcakes" with whip cream, food coloring, sprinkles - and yes, lighting birthday candles to go on top - all by theirselves in the kitchen. Not good.

And, our lovable dog. Not too interested in the ball, semi-interested in chasing Koda, but not having nearly the stamina as her. Instead, she seeks out the dirtiest place in the playground and rolls....

Sydney got in the way of this cute shot of Brayden and Baxter. Baxter is such an adorable dog - John and I have certainly fallen for him.

Finally, Traig, supervising.....shortly before we decided to leave as I feared the clouds would start dumping again. At least we all got some fresh air in this Oregon version of spring break.