We started our day as we usually do on a Saturday, at the Curbside Cafe. As is standard operating procedure, Abigail needed entertaining, so we set down to drawing pictures of dogs.

Actually, we drew pictures of Maggie in particular. Jessica drew the dog on the left below, which Abigail looked at and promptly said, “That’s not Maggie.” I ended up drawing the dog on the right, which our two year old art critic felt was a better representation of our faithful family canine.

Jessica naturally felt that she needed to redeem herself. Unfortunately, her next attempt to draw Maggie resulted in this:

After some initial neck problems, she decided to turn it into a sheep. I’m not convinced this is anything like a sheep. It looks more like a dog-llama-ostrich hybrid with the tail of a large tortoise. I mean, just look at that fluffy wing!

However, Jessica took one more shot and drew the dog sitting outside our window. With a model, she fared much better:

We hadn’t been to the Vista farmer’s market in quite a while, so we decided to stop by on our way home from breakfast. In addition to loading up on strawberries, peaches and tomatoes, we encountered a man with some birds. I’m not sure exactly what he was doing with all those parrots, macaws, and other assorted, highly plumaged animals, but the kids sure loved it.

Abigail was fascinated by the birds and only mildly concerned about the sharp toes digging into her skin. Apparently this guy rescues birds and trains them, although while we were watching the only trick any of them did was swing underneath his finger. These two had apparently been found abandoned in the desert and were given to him to rehabilitate. They’re now suitable for petting.

This had obviously been a pretty full day already, and it was getting late; it was almost 9:00 am. So we needed to really think about how we wanted to spend the rest of our morning. We couldn’t do just anything.

In the end, we decided there was only one activity that would really suit a warm, sunny, Southern California summer day. That’s right: a haircut!

They didn’t have places like this when I was a kid. Every chair is either a plane or a car or a boat, and has a television so the kids can watch videos in lieu of freaking out. The older kids can play video games while they get trimmed.

The highlight of the place – as Abigail will assert – is that you get a lollipop when you’re done.

She actually referenced the lollipop as soon as we mentioned getting a haircut, just to make sure she was clear on our terms. We’d only been there once before.

Then we went home for a nap, but it was a morning worth remembering. Thankfully, we have photographs, so we don’t have to remember.