photo of Lucky and Fanta 2 have good tone, as you can see the darkness and lightness in one picture, great stuff.
I strongly suggest you to take photos of them at nightfall, should be good I reckon. And photos of them lying down near the tree, just an suggestion for you my friend.
So far, you're doing extremely well with photography!!
now you have EOS 1000D - no doubt you'll improve in no time