Dog Days

We've been trying to squeeze in all the warm-weather activities we can in these, the dog days of summer. I tend to not be a warm-weather person, but I keep reminding myself that I will be dreaming of the hot, humid weather we've been having when the January winds are blowing! In the years since Miss Mouse was born, I've become much better, too, at living in the moment, trying to absorb what's going on around me at the time rather than wishing for the days, weeks, months, or seasons to pass....these girls are growing much more quickly than I did, I think, although my mother may disagree. Anyway, in keeping with my attempt to live in the moment, here is a pictorial update on our dog days!

We went to a kiddie fair. We rode a horse drawn carriage; Miss Mouse rode the barrel train (all by herself this year!); Miss Mouse threw a softball at a target; Miss Mouse shot a kiddie bow and arrow at a target; Sunny Baby Mouse enjoyed the carriage ride and watched the rest of the activities rather patiently. But the piece de resistance (my poor sleep-deprived brain is not allowing me to think of what that should really look like or how it should be spelled) for Miss Mouse came with the face painting booth. She waited the entire time for this, and she had decided, after considerable deliberation, that she wanted a bird on her face in the worst way. Up she went to the face painter and said in no uncertain terms, "I want a blue bird on my face."

You'll notice the red paint crayon. The lady stared helplessly at me while sputtering about not knowing anything about drawing birds. Sweet Miss Mouse just looked disappointed but said "Well, I could have a heart then." My sweet little resilient one. It's not a traumatic disappointment, but when you're three and have envisioned your bird all day, it's a fairly substantial one!

She turned out to be quite proud of that heart.

Sunny Mouse wasn't exactly sure what was going on, whether she liked it, or whether she should perhaps scream, kick, or otherwise get away. With her encouraging Big Sister standing by her side cheering her on, she sat just long enough to get a blue heart.

So, it's not the most flattering of Miss Mouse, but it's the only one I got that showed the two hearts together.

At our kids' club summer session finale, we were treated to a train ride. They may look cool as cucumbers, but these were two very excited Mice. We even went through a tunnel (and talked about it for days).

This was from last Sunday. They were matching. Only one was even semi-interested in a photo session. And she seems to be unimpressed that Big Sister got to go to church without underwear while she was firmly planted in her diaper. She was clearly unimpressed with me at this point.

It's been hot; it's been humid. Last weekend we just couldn't take it anymore and turned the hose on ourselves. Neighbor Carroll said she couldn't pass up taking our picture all together. We are all literally soaking in this shot. Soaking.

There were crafts in the park yesterday. Miss Mouse had a blast. As we walked over to the play equipment, she commented, "Wasn't that just so nice of them to have crafts here?! Wasn't that just so fun??!!" I affirmed her thoughts, although for myself being greeted with "There are markers here. These are bracelets. You can make a crown. Don't do more than three crafts per child" wasn't exactly a thrilling summer celebration by the park board. To be fair, two full vans of kids from daycares had just passed through before us, so perhaps the park board girl was a little frazzled after dealing with twenty-some kids at one time. Miss Mouse adored her crown and was terribly impressed with her bracelet. She put many star-shaped beads on it and one bead with the letter "U". For anyone who knows us well, you'll know that nowhere in her name is there a "U"; she knows this, too, but she was very proud of that "U", regardless.

I made Sunny Mouse a crown. Again, you can see how impressed she is with me. Mr. T suggested, upon seeing this picture, that she may have been annoyed that I did not see the permanent crown that she wears on her head.....In all seriousness, she is an incredibly sweet little girl, too, and she did really love her crown. She loved it to death, in fact, and was sad today that hers was gone while Miss Mouse got to wear hers again.

Back up to the park today for a picnic with Grandma and Grandpa. This was a welcome treat on a day reminiscent of September in Mr. T's schedule....I have a lovely series of pictures where Grandma is pushing each girl on the baby swings, but I'm not sure the blog setup would quite do them justice. The girls each wanted Grandma to push them, so to satisfy both girls, Grandma de-shoed and ran from swing to swing back and forth.

For anyone interested in more wedding photos....patience, please! The ones that we have are currently all on my Mom's computer, but hopefully they will make the trip here via cd soon!