Category: Summer

The Iowa State Fair

Posted on by Amy

Someone once wrote a book titled something like “1000 Things to do Before You Die.”  I don’t know who wrote it or what 999 of the things in the book are or whether I’ve done any of those things, but I do know that one of the things this person noted was the Iowa State Fair.  A must do before one dies.  Check.  Yesterday we rocked the fair and it was good.

My husband grew up going to the Iowa State Fair and loves it.  I first went when Miss was about six months old.  It was fun then.  There was lots of cool stuff to do and look at.  It was easy with just one immobile and good-tempered baby.  This time, though it was a little bit more tricky, and at times trying, it was so much more fun.  I loved, I mean loved, watching my girls do the fair.  There were so many fun experiences for them.  They got to see piglets being born.  They watched a lamb chasing and dancing around its mother to grab on to her and nurse.  They saw chicks hatching, and all sorts of other baby animals.  They got to play with butterflies.

Miss was so proud of herself for learning to catch the butterflies all by herself.  Lass had a heavier hand and needed some help to keep from clubbing them, but she eventually got it too.

A little later, Miss was very eager to ride the Big Yellow Slide.  We happened to eat lunch right near it, and she couldn’t even eat she was so anxious to get on that slide.  She was mad that she couldn’t go down by herself.  She went down with her daddy.  And she hated it.  It totally freaked her out.  Lass on the other hand loved it.  She went twice and wanted to keep going.

So true to their personalities.

Of course a day at the fair is not complete without trying various “fair foods.”  The girls have a book in which the characters go to a fair and eat cotton candy, so they were eager to try it.  Cotton candy is not one of my favorite things and I would not normally waste $4 on it, but I was excited to see what they thought of it.  Naturally Lass jumped right in and ate it up.

And Miss was not so sure.  She said, “Why is it dry?”  She didn’t love it so much.

I tried my first fried Snickers bar.  It was tasty, but I think I’d rather just have the Snickers.  Surprisingly, not everything in life is made more delicious by deep fat frying it.

We made up for the disappointing cotton candy with red velvet funnel cake.  Funnel cake is not really my thing (my belief about dessert is that, with very few exceptions, it’s generally not worth the calories if it isn’t chocolate) but the girls enjoyed it.  Again, Lass dug in with vigor.

We spent a lot of time looking at the animals.  They were the big hit of the day, from all the baby animals to the “Big Boar.”  His name was Reggie and he was over 1500 lbs, I think!  Though his size was impressive, the girls actually seemed to prefer the smaller animals, because poor enormous Reggie didn’t do anything but lay in the dirt.  The girls were really intrigued by other animals like bunnies, chickens, ponies, llamas, sheep, horses, normal-sized pigs, and an elk.  Miss’s favorite were the bunnies.

Lass’s favorite were the cows.  She asked to pet a new mama cow who was in the birthing barn with her calf, but there was a staff member posted near her specifically to make sure no one got too close.  That mama cow was very protective.  Gotta respect that.

We had so much fun looking at and talking about all the animals.  It was an amazing learning experience.  We talked about everything we saw, from how the baby chicks peck their way out of the eggs to why a sheep pooped in his water dish.  They’re still talking about that one.

A surprising favorite was the tractors.  My husband loves to look at them, but I wasn’t expecting my girls to get into them as much as they did.  They wanted to climb into every one and Miss got upset when we needed to move on to other things.

We saw as much of the Fair as we could in one too-short morning.  We got back to the Farm after a long drive and one of the first things Miss asked to do was to look at her Papa’s tractors!  She takes after her Daddy I guess.

We’re at the Farm this week, recharging and savoring the last of summer.  The Iowa State Fair was a wonderful addition.


Making Memories

Posted on by Amy
We were in recovery mode today.  Yesterday we partied hard with our friends.  This statement takes on a whole new, yet still quite accurate meaning when you consider that “we” is in reference to four adults with our six children under five getting together for a fun evening of grilling, trampolining, swinging (on the swing set), running, sandbox-ing, exploring, chasing, and s’mores eating, with grown up conversation in between.  The three “little kids” (under 2) went to bed after s’mores and the three “big” kids (3 and 4) got in jammies and stayed up to watch Snow White while the adults visited around the fire pit.  My husband and my friend’s husband had spent what seemed like an hour getting that fire started.  They didn’t use a lighter or any matches.  Just some old-fashioned cave-man fire-starting stuff.  I was literally on my way to get the lighter (because it was way past time for s’mores!!) when I saw smoke finally rising from our fire pit.  The manly men prevailed, and it was good.
We had a wonderful time with friends.  The kids all got sufficiently sweaty and dirty and scraped up to consider it a true summertime playing extravaganza.  They explored our “woods” (treed area around the perimeter of our yard) and jumped themselves silly on our new trampoline.  My husband, hero of the evening, played a new game with them, which involved getting on his hands and feet under the trampoline and chasing the kids by pushing his butt up into the trampoline from the underside while running around bear-crawl style.  I wish I had seen this and gotten a photo.  I heard the laughter and screaming of the kids, but I was putting Sis to bed while this was going on.  So I, like you, have only a (very hilarious) mental image of these antics to go by.  Oh how I love that man. 
Needless to say, we were all feeling a little worn out today.  Incredibly, the girls only slept in a little bit past their usual wake up times, so they were pretty tired and crabby today.  We got lots of good down time in though.  Nothing like being pooped to bring a family together for some serious bonding.  The girls made breakfast with their Daddy.  
They love helping him cook eggs.  They work the pepper mill and really get into pinching and sprinkling the salt from my salt pig.
We read lots of books and just relaxed.

This afternoon we went outside for more backyard fun.  I love watching the big girls run and play in the yard.  They go on “adventures” and make up scenarios involving monsters and giants and castles and rescue missions.  We got them sufficiently tuckered out again this evening.  
This is the stuff of memories.  

Doing Summer

Posted on by Amy
We’ve been doing summer a little differently this year.  Last year we spent several days each week at the pool in the mornings, and were outside playing constantly.  This year, with the arrival of Baby Sis, plus Miss having school on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, swimming on Monday and Wednesday mornings, and our standing play date on Fridays, and with naps in the afternoons, well, we haven’t been outside as much so far this summer (except for the two weeks we’ve spent at the Farm already, of course).  This summer we’ve been chilling out around the house a bit more when we are home.   

It’s different, but still fun.  The big girls have taken to putting on their own dance parties.

The little baby play table next to Miss is what she was playing the music on.  My little budding DJ…

Lass initially just wanted to watch.

I won’t dance.  Don’t ask me.

But of course she started to get into the music before long.

And eventually really let loose.

Miss is really into playing her games and being crafty.

She and I made the “crown” she’s wearing from rolled up strips of a Snow White page she colored and yarn.  The idea came from our summer babysitter, who brought over this craft and made necklaces with the girls one day.  Yep, I now have a babysitter who does crafts with the girls.  Her own crafts, that she prepares and brings with her.  And cleans up.  This is huge.  I love this.

Baby sis is just such a little lover.  She’s the happiest little baby.

She has started to giggle a tiny bit.  Here is the progression of one of her giggles:

Miss takes an art class on Wednesday mornings before her swimming lesson.  Yesterday Lass and Sis and I  ran a few short errands and then sat outside and had a snack while waiting for her class to finish.

It was the perfect spot for a little snack picnic.

So far summer has felt very full.  Maybe it has been a little too full, with school and swimming and art and play dates and travel and all the other day to day stuff that has to fit in there too.  But it has been good.  Today was Miss’s last day of school for the summer, so we will have a bit of time freed up for pool and park mornings or just playing outside in our own yard a bit more.  Tomorrow we leave for Kentucky to visit my parents.  My Grandma will be visiting them too, so we will celebrate her 90th birthday and have a family reunion this weekend.  I can’t wait for her to meet Sis.  My parents haven’t seen her since the week after she was born.  She’s three months old today.

It’s gonna be a great trip.

I Gotta Get Me One of These

Posted on by Amy
And when I say “one of these,” I’m referring to a huge, obnoxious trampoline to put in my backyard.  For my kids, of course.  Yes. For my kids.

During our recent weeks of traveling we spent some time with my sister-in-law’s family.  They have a trampoline in their backyard (along with a pool and lots of chickens, it’s like child heaven there).  The girls loved it.

They played “Monster” with my husband and his brother.

They jumped and jumped and ran and jumped some more.  They laughed and screamed a lot.

Miss made up a game called “Kitty-Cat-Cat Ball,” which she played with her older cousins.  The rules according to Miss: “You throw the ball up in the air and try to catch it. And if you miss it, you have to do something else.” Right on.

This was her proud pose every time she caught the ball.  I love, love, love this pose.  I just wish this photo would have captured the priceless look on her face too.

Her cousin was pretending to have trouble catching the ball.  Here she was telling him, “You have to keep trying.  I know you can do it!”

Add trampoline to the long list of things I once thought I would never do or buy for my children that I am now scrambling to buy and have rush delivered.  I don’t know why I used to think I wouldn’t get one of these.  It’s great exercise.  The kids can be entertained for hours in there.  And with the zip-up safety cage around it, it’s like the world’s largest playpen!  Entertainment + Containment = LOVE

And who am I kidding?  I can’t wait to get in and jump around myself too!

Braving the Pool

Posted on by Amy
I took the girls to the pool this afternoon for the first time this summer.  It’s pretty hot here, so I figured it would be a good way to get some outside time after naps (or non-nap in the case of Miss).  My husband had a meeting, so I braved the pool on my own.  Through having the girls in the water at my sister-in-law’s in the past few weeks, we have learned that Lass is fearless when it comes to the water, so I was a bit nervous.  I figured we’d be okay though since the pool has zero-entry and I put a floatie on her.  At first it was super easy, and I wondered what I had even been nervous about.  Sis sat in her car
seat in the shade and Miss and Lass splashed around harmlessly in less that one foot of water, pretty much right by my feet.  Then a friend, who is about two months older than Miss showed up.  It was great for the girls to be able to play with her, but her arrival disrupted our little peaceful, safe, easy playing.  She and Miss immediately headed for deeper water (“deeper” in this case meaning one to two feet) and of course Lass went right along with them.  They were playing “horsey” on some of those pool noodles.  That, in addition to the slightly deeper water, was enough to throw Lass off her balance a bit, and twice I went running though the water and hauled her up after she lost her footing and went face first into the water.  With the noodle under her she couldn’t quite get her feet back under herself.  After the second time, I had to call it quits for Lass for today.  I think I’m going to get a more substantial life jacket and maybe we’ll try it again in a few days.  That girl freaks me out.  She’s my little dare devil.  
I really would love to have some photos of our pool time to post, since it was mostly lots of fun and the girls were, naturally, oh so cute splashing around.  But between hawk-watching Miss and Lass, trying to keep the sun off Sis (she was perfectly shaded in her car seat, but then got fussy, so I put her in the Ergo), and making life-saving dives for my middle child, the camera never made it out of my bag.  So instead, I’ll share with you a few of the photos from last week at the farm.
Of course my husband did tons of fishing and the girls were very excited to see some of the larger fish he caught.  No filleting this time, though.
Foos-ball-room for the princesses to dance in.
We had a very big and somewhat scary storm the last night we were at the Farm.  It blew up right around snack time, so we took our stuff to the basement for a picnic.  The girls seemed unfazed in spite of all the thunder and lightning, the 40-50 MPH winds, sideways-falling rain and hail. 
Of course we celebrated Father’s Day morning at the Farm before heading home.  During the week prior to our trip, I had the girls make Father’s Day paintings.  They painted canvases for their Daddy.

Then Miss did paintings on paper for my Grandpa, my Dad, and my Father-in-law (Lass lost interest after her canvas was done).  At the end as she was finishing up the painting for my Father-in-law, her Papa, she decided it would be funny to stick her face in the still-wet paint.

She seems to be our little budding artist.  She really loves to paint anything.  She got really into painting some gourds with my Mother-in-law when we were at the farm.  She seems to understand the power of art to make people smile too.  When she created her painting for my Grandpa she said, “I think this will make Great-grandpa happy.”  Yes, I think so too.

Bring on Summer

Posted on by Amy
We have started our new summer schedule this week.  Miss is still going to school for the month of June, but she’s switched to Tuesdays and Thursdays to make room for a Monday and Wednesday swimming class and Wednesday art class.  So far this week we’ve been busy but thoroughly enjoying it.  Lass and Sis came with me to vote in our state’s big recall election yesterday while Miss was in school.  Lass waited so patiently in line with me.  She got a cookie when we were done.  And a sticker, of course.

She is such a funny little character.  While on our way out of the building where we voted, an elderly man was walking in, and as we passed him he held out his hand to her as if asking her for her cookie.  She was holding her cookie in her left hand, with her right hand holding mine.  Without skipping a beat, she let go of my hand and slapped the man’s hand to give him “5.”  She is awesome.

Sis just hung out and slept the whole time.  She’s a dream baby.  We voted after she had her 2-month doctor’s appointment.  She weighed in at the 90th %ile, and her height is around the 97th %ile.  Pretty much the same as her sisters at that age, though Miss is now around the 50th %ile for both height and weight.  I had to pull out 6-month sized clothes for Sis this week!

Miss started a new art class today.  I tried out the drop-in childcare at the YMCA for Lass and Sis and got in a workout while Miss’s class was going.  I have never done that before.  I am wondering why.  It will now be a weekly practice.

Naturally, we had some mad dress-up after coming home.  Miss has started striking these funny little poses when I ask if I can take her picture.

I have no idea where she learned this, but I love it.

Both older girls were accessorized to the max.

Thank goodness this little one is a wonderful traveler.

We are leaving again for the Farm on Friday for another week of sun and outside playing and exploring.  And dress up.  There will be lots of dress up I’m sure.  I know Lass will be happy to reunite with the pink leo.  

Welcome summer!

Animal Farm

Posted on by Amy
Fall will be here soon. It’s my favorite season. In the fall I get all excited about going to new outdoor places and soaking up every possible moment of the beautiful weather, before Winter hits us like a slap in the face…

Yesterday we checked out a local animal farm, where they have all sorts of cool animals to look at and feed. When I paid our admission, we were given three bags of bread and told we could feed any of the animals we wanted, but just to “watch our fingers.” Miss got right to feeding some goats.


We had seen two beautiful peacocks walking around free right after we drove onto the property. As we went further, we saw there were lots of animals roaming around out in the open. I noticed one of the peacocks near where we were standing and tried to get a great photo of it. I was not successful. See that goat behind the peacock?
Shortly after I took this photo, that guy and one of his pals accosted us, trying to steal my bread and completely freaking Lass and Miss out. Lass was in her stroller, doing a great job, and Miss had been feeding the smaller caged goats. These two insane goats practically stood on top of the stroller, trying to get at the stack of bread I had pulled out of the bag and the pieces that had fallen on the ground. There was a cat trying to climb into Lass’s lap too. Needless to say, I forgot all about the peacock as I was frantically trying to strap on my Ergo while Miss was working on climbing up my leg saying, “Hold me Mommy! Hold me Mommy!” and Lass was screaming bloody murder. One of the women working there came over and started trying to pull the goats away just as I was getting Lass into the Ergo, her favorite spot.

I ended up pushing an empty stroller for the rest of our visit. It was a good spot to hold the bread I guess.

Fortunately, Miss quickly forgot about the goat attack and was right back into feeding them.



This guy kind of made her nervous though.

I thought he was really fun to feed. His tongue was super long and funny.

Miss kept getting freaked out though and dropping her bread each time he’d stick his tongue out to grab it. By the way, if you can’t tell from the photos, this guy is a buffalo. I think. They had Bison there too, but they were separate, and I’m pretty sure this guy was a buffalo. There were water buffalo too, which Miss thought was pretty fun, since we recently got the book, “Panda Bear, Panda Bear, What Do You See?” in which there is a water buffalo.

This is the guy who freaked me out a little bit. Just for a second. With each of the animals we fed, I gave them a piece of bread before letting Miss do it, just to make sure it wasn’t going to take her little arm off or anything. When I held out a piece of bread to this ostrich, he stretched his neck out and grabbed at it so quickly, he startled me so much I jumped back, let out a screech, and dropped my bread.

After a second try though, he really was pretty friendly. Miss had no trouble feeding him.
She love seeing the ostrich eggs and kept asking if she could go get one and were they going to hatch. I thought it odd that they were just lying all around on the ground like that.
There were a few other odd things about the place. Like the fact that a stretch of our tour led us through this area that was full of trash,


and these. There were a bunch of them just in a pile in the trash area. Notice several of them still have fur on them? One was even a bit more fresh, but I didn’t take a photo of that one. Weird.
And many of the animals clearly needed a bit of grooming.

But, Miss didn’t even notice all that stuff. I just looked past it, after taking some photos of course, and we really did have a lot of fun.
There were so many different types of animals to see and being able to feed them was great.
Camels.

Horses. Miss loved the horses. And I loved seeing her run right up near them and then stop and stare, up, up, up at these big guys.

Lass enjoyed the horses too.
I was trying to get a photo showing how she was interested in them. What I got instead was a horse nipping my shoulder. I snapped this photo right as the big black and white one was taking a nibble. It didn’t hurt, but scared the heck out of me for a second.
I thought this pig was so funny, but was bummed that he didn’t want anything to do with us. We had to just drop our piece of bread for him, and he didn’t even sniff at it until we had walked on by.
Miss did get to feed some other pigs later though.
I loved this fawn. It ate out of our hands, and made this funny little squeaking sound asking for more.
The bison.
Eyeore.
This guy was a miniature dwarf pony. He was one of my favorites.

Birds.

Turtles.
I think these were porcupines.
There were a lot more animals too. When I asked Miss what her favorite was though, she said, “The cats.”
She loved this little bunny too.
And so did Lass.

It was a fun day. I’m glad we have something like this place nearby. I still have to take the girls to the bigger zoo soon though. Miss keeps asking to see giraffes, hippos, and rhinoceroses. So we’ll make that trip soon.

Cheech and Chong

Posted on by Amy
Today, when we were getting ready for the day, I swore, for a brief moment of “where the heck did she get that?” that Miss was saying, “Cheech and Chong” over and over. I started to crack up about it, but realized all too quickly that she was actually saying, “teeth and tongue.” She was playing with a doll and I suspect she was brushing its teeth. Damn. “Cheech and Chong” would have been funny. But even without that, my kid is pretty amusing. I love those moments when she says something that cracks me up. She does it more and more often these days.
An example of this occurred in the grocery store checkout the other day. We were waiting for the bagger to get the last of our stuff in the cart. Miss said she was hungry and I told her that we were going to go home in a few minutes to have lunch. I then asked her what she might like to eat. Without skipping a beat she replied, “A lemon.” She was so serious about this I couldn’t help but laugh out loud. And she continued to ask for a lemon to eat, all the way home, during lunch, and the next day. I kept telling her that I needed to use the lemon we had purchased that day for a recipe, but she kept asking. Today when it was time for her snack I suggested apple yogurt. She said, “No, I fink my want a lemon.” I had realized, when cooking my recipe that required a lemon last night, that I actually had another, extra lemon in the fridge, so this time I said, “Sure. Hop up to the table and you can have a lemon for your snack.” I was chuckling to myself about this, but she surprised me. She took several bites and kept asking for more.


She didn’t shudder. Didn’t make a sour face. She seemed to love it.


She got to her third wedge of lemon before finally giving a little shudder.

Then a big shudder and sour face.
She then held her lemon wedge out to me and said, “Apple yogurt please!”
Today the weather was perfect. A beautiful late summer, early fall day with sun and a breeze and a temp of about 75. I decided it was a park day. Lass loves hats, and was so excited when I pulled out her bonnet for the park trip.
As we were getting loaded up to go to the park I happened to think, “It’s Thursday, I’ll bet I could find a few rummage sales on the way.” So I took a slightly circuitous route to the park to look for some sales along the way. I found two. They were crap. Seriously, the first one had deodorant for sale for 75 cents. Deodorant! 75 cents! So wrong. I didn’t look any further because I wanted the girls to have plenty of time at the park before lunch. We went to a new park today and Miss had a blast checking out all the new stuff there.



Of course there was a lot of swinging.


This park has a splash pad, which I assumed was turned off. One little boy apparently touched the magic spot to turn it on, and Miss immediately asked to go play in the water.



The little spouts of water shot up in a sporadic manner, so Miss got doused by a couple of them.
She didn’t seem to care. And Lass had fun putting her hands in the water from the Ergo.
This place is my new favorite park.
We came home to get dry clothes, eat lunch and take naps, and then went back to the beautiful day outside. We took a walk, which was very short because Miss requested to walk by herself instead of riding in the stroller. As she was walking she went onto a neighbor’s lawn and started to take her shoes off. I told her she needed to keep them on while we were walking and she informed me that she wanted to feel the grass under her feet. All right. She agreed to keep her shoes on until we were in our own yard, and then we all promptly took off our shoes to feel the tickle of the grass under our feet. Lass got a big kick out of this. Miss and I danced and shuffled our feet. This resulted in some heckling from my hubby who was inside changing clothes after work. The heckling resulted in a dazzling display of the Running Man by yours truly. The evening was topped off by grilled homemade brats, football on the telly, and very soon, ice cream. I love days like today. My spoon is calling me.

A Week to Remember

Posted on by Amy
We got back late last night from a long, tiring, yet fun-filled ten days at the Farm. The girls grew so much during the week it seems, with so much to do and so many loving people around to do it with. Both sets of their grandparents, aunts, uncles, a gazillion cousins. They saw cool and interesting things and had new experiences. This bird’s nest is just one example of the treasure trove of nature that is the Farm.

The photo doesn’t do it justice. It’s made mostly of pieces of baling twine, twisted intricately around the branches and woven with grass, and probably other stuff. The general consensus was that it was probably an oriole’s nest. We didn’t bring it back with us, though that would have been a hell of a find for Miss to take to preschool. Miss’s Baba also gave her a robin’s egg, but we forgot that too. Miss saw deer, a coyote, a huge praying mantis, the biggest spider I’ve ever seen outside a glass case, a stick bug, and on and on. She really loved checking out the milkweed pods and walnuts that she found on the ground.
A different kind of new experience came for her in the form of corn. She has had sweet corn many times that I cut off the cob for her, but this week she had her first try at eating it right off the cob. She thought that was pretty cool.


But much more thrilling was her first ride on the “Great Big Mable” float pulled behind my in-law’s boat.



She didn’t seem scared in the slightest.
Just waving and smiling. My little daredevil.
Right after coming in from the boat and Mable ride, she went fishing with her Daddy. They caught several fish, and she had lots of fun with the worms.



One fish broke off their hook, so Miss sat and watched for fish with my mom while her Daddy went to get a new hook.
Then they were back in business.




Poor Lass is too little to get in on lots of the action her sister is getting into now, but she had great fun playing with her cousins. She really started moving with her walking this week too. Though she took her first steps shortly after turning 11 months, she never really got going with walking, and in fact until a few days ago, had almost stopped trying entirely. Now she’s really getting into it, choosing to walk instead of crawling more and more often, and stringing together more and more steps.

After her fishing time with her Dad, Miss got ready to go for a treasure hunt. She got all ready in her boots and headed out to the Ranger. The treasure hunt is one of my favorite things about the farm.
Tons of kids and adults pile on the Rangers and go off to explore and look for treasures of all kinds. I used to love going on treasure hunts when I first started coming to the Farm almost a decade ago. I was always the “City Mouse” to my husband’s “Country Mouse” family, and thoroughly enjoyed going out and being awed by all the finds. It’s a hundred times more fun to do it now with my kids.
We stopped to pick lots of wild flowers, which Lass loved.

Then we got down to the beach, where the kids splashed around and looked for shells and critters.

There were tons of tiny frogs hopping all around and the kids had a blast trying to catch them. Miss got to hold one that her older cousin caught for her. She also found a snake that her uncle grabbed up for her. That girl and her snakes…
Lass enjoyed the beach too.
It was really a week to remember. Every new experience for my girls seems like something new and amazing for me too. I love every minute of it.
Today we savored the trip and each other, happy to be home and back in our routine. Summer is winding down quickly here in the North Country. Today was crisp and felt very much like fall already. Football has started (Go Blue!). And preschool starts this week! Loving every minute.

Homebodies

Posted on by Amy

Today we stayed home. After our weekend away, I just wanted to be here. The weather cooperated enough that we could get outside for the girls to have some fun and new experiences. Like roller skating.

She held on to my hand for about 30 seconds before saying, “I want to do it myself.” And she did.

She fell down several times, but didn’t seem to mind too much.

She just got back up and kept on going. Doesn’t she look so grown up?


And this little one is so close to walking. Today I saw her take one tiny step forward before grabbing on to something. Outside she was most definitely the master of this lion.
She pushed it sideways in circles instead of standing behind it and rolling it.


There is a circle of grass around a big, gorgeous oak tree in our front yard. It’s my favorite place on our property. I used to spread a blanket there and sit outside with Miss during her first summer. I take the girls out there now and we blow bubbles and take our shoes off to feel the grass on our feet. Today, like every other day, we were drawn to the circle. Miss calls it, “The Hole” or “The Rocks” (it’s mostly sunken below the level of our driveway and surrounded by rocks).
The girls decided to take a little rest in the shade from all their hard work.


Under the tree it’s cool and the grass is soft. There are usually treasures to be found like leaves, pieces of bark, sticks, bugs, etc. Miss marvels at them and Lass tries to eat them.
It’s a peaceful spot to sit.
And the view from under the tree is amazing.





After naps we went outside to try out the new sand in the sandbox. Miss enjoyed it, but we had to take a break from it because she kept trying to dump the sand outside the sandbox.
I put the cover back over it and she begged me to let her go in the “baby swing.” I convinced her to try out the big girl swing first (which she has enjoyed greatly but fell from when playing with her cousins on Thursday) and told her she could go on the baby swing after that if she still wanted to.
She didn’t want to.