My dear friend from college brought her two children over for a playdate—she drove two hours each way, which was so appreciated! N. was quite interested in her daughter—N. loves babies—and all of the kids had a great time! This picture is a little blurry, but you can see how excited N. is to hang out with the little L.
The older kiddos moved too quickly to get many pictures of them, but we did convince everyone to sit for a group photo.
And N. discovered that lawn mowing is hard work!
N. and I went to the Children’s Museum with two of our good friends (one photogenic and one not as much interested):
She built and raced cars down a ramp:
Participated in a fashion show:
Drove in the Indy500:
Took care of a baby and made several meals:
Climbed and hid:
And hung out with her buddy:
One hopefully future benefit of having children is being able to pass along some chores to them. Since the girls like to pretend to cook, I figured I’d up the ante and actually let them cook for real. Another benefit I’ve read is that, when children are involved in making a meal, they tend to be more inclined to eat it. These girls are super eaters, and we were having pizza which seems to be a fairly ubiquitous child-friendly food (though they sometimes can take it or leave it), but I’ll be darned—they both asked for seconds!
Each girl got a bowl of sauce to spread on the French Bread, then we added pepperoni and olives and topped the pizzas with shredded cheese. As you can see from the telltale sauce near her mouth, N. sampled all of the ingredients.
The girls were really excited to get to do this, and I’ll have to remember to do it more often. Even though it takes me more time and effort than doing it myself, the fun they had was worth it!
I finally decided to deal with the potential mess and let the girls paint with the tempera paints that K. had gotten for Christmas. K, of course, could sit and paint for hours—she loves it so much. N. even got into the fun.
K. and her masterpiece. I was surprised she paused long enough to smile for me.
I assume it was a neat coincidence, but there’s a chance that she mixed her paint until she came up with the shade of maroon that exactly matched her old t-shirt-turned-smock. That’s my girl!
After the meal, we took a walk with the kiddos (N is the littlest, K and C are the same age (within, I think, three months), and C’s brother is a couple of years older than him.
The kiddos got to throw rocks into a pond, which is always a favorite game. At least it was until my youngest, showing minimal awareness for others, hit her buddy square in the back of the head with a rock. She claims it was an accident and that she was just too young to note what the trajectory of the rock was going to be; I know she aims well enough that I’m suspicious…
Every time N. threw a rock, she would turn around, say “yaaay,” and clap for herself. Then she would walk to the rocks and select the largest one she could find and begin the process over again.
The girls with Dad, Grandma, and Great-Grandpa.
Sweet sweet K. and her daddy!
Oh, those girls. I love them so much!
And N. thought that Great-Grandpa’s cane was pretty cool. It was almost as tall as she was and she looked like Moses parting the red sea when she picked it up.
Then her buddy C took a turn.
Heading home.
