Anythink

We have a great library near our house called Anythink Wright Farms. It has the best kids' play area I've ever seen at a library, and tons of free activities for kids. We've been going to Toddler Tales a lot lately, where the girls enjoy listening to stories, singing songs, and playing with scarves, bean bags, and bells.
 

On this particular Toddler Tales Tuesday in October, we stopped by the blue park after the library to have a picnic lunch. This picture I took reminded me of a time we visited the blue park last fall after gymnastics class. Oh my how these girls have grown! (Click here for a flashback)

 

A Sunday Afternoon at the Park

The day after Rose's party, we took our lollipops and headed to EB Rains park, one of our favorites. We love this park because there's a lake, so there are always lots of geese and ducks to watch.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We walked one lap around the lake and then stopped at the playground to play for a bit. Emily needed to finish her lollipop before playing. I asked her if I could have a taste, and I bit it and a little chunk landed on the ground. This was her face after that accident:

Mommy broke my sucker. :(

 Very shortly after, though, all tears were forgotten because we go to PLAY! There are two playgrounds at EB Rains, one for toddlers and one for big kids. Last summer, the girls were playing on the toddler playground. This time, though, they had no interest in the baby stuff and ran straight for the big kid structure!

 

 

Elizabeth was in her stroller most of the time, but she was so happy to just sit back and watch.

 

 

We made a stop at the toddler swings, where all three girls got to swing together!

 

 

 

Bye Bye park! We'll be back soon!

Elizabeth Swings!

After converting the cribs to big girl beds, we headed off to one of our favorite neighborhood parks, the "Blue Park" where Elizabeth got to try out the swing for the first time!

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Bit of August

Hello Blue Eyes

Sweet girl in soft afternoon light

Hey Mom, I went potty and I'm ready to go!

Alright, all the girls really are ready to go now!

A snake came to visit our garden, and Emily and Addie got closer to this little guy than our 8 year old neighbor boy would. He was very impressed by their bravery.

Hi Mr. Snake!

Mom. It's a snake. It's by our toys.

Nissssssss to meet you.

This is so cool.

This little monkey love swinging in the nectarine tree

The snake's gone, mom!

We're off to the neighborhood playground in our superhero capes!

Our neighbor friends Trace and Berlin ran up to join us! Big kids are SO cool!

 

 

Super Emily and Super Addie, flying high to the next adventure!

Sisters

Before Elizabeth came home, the girls had really been loving their baby dolls. After she came home, that didn't change. In fact, their baby doll play may have even increased. After all, they want to do whatever Mom and Dad are doing, and lately there's been a lot of baby feeding, burping, rocking, and holding.

Here's Emily, a couple days after Elizabeth came home, showing off her baby rocking skills.

Now that Elizabeth has been home for five weeks, Addie has gotten quite comfortable around her and asks to hold her ("hote!") a couple times a day. For the first week though, before the holding started in earnest, Addie would sit as close to her baby sister as she could, observing all the tiny details.

 Little Helpers

 These big sisters really have been great little helpers. Here they are being sweet and precious while Dee Dee changed a diaper.

 

I just love this shot! When Elizabeth was just over a week old, Doug and Kirstin came for a visit and we all piled into the Traverse for a trip to the playground. Here are all three girls in the backseat. 

And I'll finish off this post with one of my favorite shots from Easter. Three sisters in matching butterfly dresses. Life is sweet!

 

Current Events

We had so much fun at the park today with our friends Rose and Dale, I just have to post these pictures now, even though later tonight, you'll be hearing about events from back in December. 

Lunch was a hurried affair without much eating.  These kids were ready to hit the playground.

Who is that big girl in the striped pants over there playing with those other big kids? Oh! It's my baby Addie!

Emily is pretty darn excited about this slide!

Peek!

Rose showed off her climbing skills and then admired her view from up high.

Yes, Addison is carrying a ball around in her mouth.

Didn't quite get her fill at the picnic table, so it's time for some more sandwich.

Emily and her new little friend held up the line for the slides for quite some time. They were really getting a kick out of hearing everyone cheer for them to come on down!

After her second little lunch break on the bench, Addie decided it would just be most efficient to carry the sandwiches around with her while playing. The tupperware container was a bit cumbersome at times, but since she's used to carrying objects around with her wherever she goes all day long, she did pretty well.

Now this is one fun spinning whirligig. We heard lots of Emily giggles while Mama spun her around and around.

Wee!!

Spin Spin Spin!

Then Emily had to go and scare the daylights out of me by climbing to the top of the big kid playground after seeing Dale do it again and again. Luckily, there were lots of bars to prevent falling, but there were also lots of extremely steep slides and this little monkey is becoming quite the daredevil so I didn't quite trust her to stay on the bridges.

She was quite gleeful when she sensed my apprehension.

When Addison saw the attention Emily got for climbing so high, she had to follow. She made it up several flights of stairs with her sandwich box in hand.

Imagine a Tarzan yell here. Soon all four kids were high above us, and we ended up climbing up to surround them and heard them back down.

Good ol' close-to-the-ground fun!

Now, while all this playing has been going on, Dale has been collecting "treasures" in the treasure bag that Auntie Abbey gave him for the sole purpose of treasure hunting. I guess I was imagining rocks and maybe an occasional bottlecap. 

But instead, Dale's prize treasure of the day...a cigar butt. Hmmmm, sorry about that Mark and Wendy!

Sweet girl and her Mama (oh, sorry Dale, I told you I'd never call your Mommy a Mama again!)

 Can't wait to do it all again soon!