Wanderer's Daughter

QQ's social holidays continued last night as M and I welcomed a surprise visit from our some old friends from our days in the mountains, on their way back north after spending the holidays in Austin. Mike made my favorite winter dish - a hearty spaghetti made with olives, capers, hardboiled eggs and spicy sausage. Here, QQ watches him whipping up a batch of avocado and tomatillo dressing, a light, spicy recipe from a cookbook my mum gave him for Christmas.
E and G playing with QQ's cat piano. There's something so sweet about watching brothers play together.
Here's my question about this photo: who left the laundry room door open, literally exposing all our dirty laundry? And why did we not manage to put the vacuum cleaner away?
The arrival of boys in our household meant the unearthing of all sorts of dangerous toys we didn't even know we posessed (along with a lot of uneaten candy...no one in this house eats candy, and it's embarrassing how much of it ends up stashed in little corners of the house, left by well-meaning guests or left over from halloween. Since Q has no interest in candy, we never even notice until someone else's children begin to unearth it). The toy rifle that G is holding was not purchased for a child. It was a joke present for a Bonnie-and-Clyde themed Christmas, long before we even thought about adoption or parenthood. One of those Western-themed toys that have occupied the racks of truckstops and gas stations across the southwest since the 1970s (or earlier, for all I know!). I can't believe it has traveled with us through at least three moves, only to be found, inevitably, by someone else's child! Ah, well.