June 12th, 2012

Sing with me. (to the tune of popcorn popping) "I looked through the camera and what did I see?  Two sweet children smiling back at me."  I can't get enough of these two kiddos.


Rachel, Joseph and I went to playgroup at the Wheeler Farm.  "Mooo!  Cows!"


Rachel and Emmalee discuss the benefits of finding a feather.


"It's hot.  What's so neat about the farm anyway?"


Rachel was constantly picking up dirt and throwing it.


The only thing that interrupted playing in the dirt was the chance to look at fun animals.


"Little Joseph had a farm.  E-I-E-I-O."


Rachel tried to climb up the tree with the other kids.  She fell and got hurt.  On her way to get a kiss and a hug from her mommy, tears blurring her vision, she ran smack into the fence and fell over backward.  Poor kid.  It was hard for all of the moms in the crowd not to laugh.  She was so adorable.


More playing in the dirt and finding a stick cheered her right up.


"You mean we get to play at the park?"


Let the bark chip throwing begin!



"Don't mess with me.  I own this park."


Joseph had just mastered the art of standing.


Rachel decided to teach him the art of throwing bark.


"Look Mom!"


Time to get cleaned up and go home.


I thought Rachel was taking a nap.  She was actually shredding a book of fairytales from Doug's childhood.  Grrrr!  She had never done that before!  Why now?  The funny thing is that she was as sad as I was that the book was destroyed.  Her favorite "Three Little Pigs" was no more.


Rachel and I take turns blow drying her hair after her bath.



She decided Joey needed a blow dry too.  Check out their matching farm pajamas.


Every night after prayer we encourage Joey to try walking.  We know that he can do it.  He's already taken his first steps.  I think he just finds crawling to be more convenient.

Twinkie Memorial Park Playgroup

Twinkie Park got it's name via local legend.  Supposedly a mother often took her kids to the Hostess Outlet then to this park.  One of her kids asked, "Can we go to Twinkie Park?"  The name stuck.  Now that Hostess is in bankruptcy we jokingly call it "Twinkie Memorial Park."  Of course the kids don't care what it's called as long as they can play.


Isn't she adorable?!


"See Emmalee.  This is my horse."


Three Musketeers.  (We didn't know the girl in the yellow.)


This was a challenging day at the park for me.  Joseph kept wandering off and Rachel kept making friends with teenagers.  At one point she was sitting on the stairs surrounded by an assortment of kids ranging from about 10 to probably 16.  I can be labeled as overprotective.  But, with strange teenagers, including boys, I don't think I can be too cautious.  How do you instill stranger danger without ruining innocence, trust and friendship skills?  Of course Joe looks wary of everything in this picture.


Rachel is honing her sliding skills.


The slides that used to terrify her are now fun and exciting.


Her favorite is always the swings.  I told her I couldn't push her anymore because I needed to keep an eye on Joey who didn't want to swing.  Sweet inventive Rachel found someone who liked swinging as much as she does.  Piggy is a daredevil.

Playgroups

Here are some assorted unposted pictures from this summer's playgroups.


 
 
 
 

First Playgroup of the Season

Rachel spent a lot of time observing the other kids.

You can almost see the wheels turning in her head.

She bravely tried new equipment.  She confidently strikes out on her own. 

There was a kind little 4 year old that helped her get her feet into this slide.  The 4 year old patiently helped Rachel over and over again.

Joseph spent most of the time in his car seat. 

 

These are a few of my favorite pictures outside my family unit.

Spring!

Two of my favorite things about spring are:

1.  Taking walks with my little people.  And...


2.  Relaxing on a bench while Rachel wears herself out having fun.
 

Ready?


1-2-3 Go


Whee!




The walk home is heartbreaking, however, with Rachel pleading through her tears, "one more time?"  My reply, "yes, you can slide again, but it will have to wait for another day" must feel hollow to her.