Saturday afternoon

Here's Anna Kate watching Daddy mow the grass on Saturday afternoon. She and Daddy had already enjoyed a "date" earlier in the day.

A basket-ful of Lucy

I loved this picture!
All on her own, Lucy decided to sit down . . . And stand up . . . maybe she thought she could walk in the basket?
Showing us her ears . . .
Anna Kate snuggles up with Lucy for a sisters picture.

Sisters are so fun! Anna Kate and Lucy are really enjoying one another, and Mommy and Daddy are really happy about that.

Anna Kate leads the pack of children on our staff - all girls. Zoe is just 6 weeks younger than Lucy. Anna Kate will read to the girls, play with them, and otherwise help them know what to do. She is a big fan of reading to them because she can persuade them to sit on her "lappie." Lucy goes down for a nap 30 minutes to an hour before Anna Kate these days, which gives us a little time for playing games - a favorite. When we returned to Albany in August, I started teaching her "go fish" - easily mastered, except of course for the strategic benefit of keeping your cards to yourself. She really likes to tell you which cards she has . . . but, nevertheless, 30 minutes or more of "go fish" each day makes Mommy grow weary. So, I decided to try and teach her UNO. Can you imagine my surprise when she began identifying each number correctly? She proudly shared that her cousin Madeline had taught her her numbers this summer. (Thanks, Madeline!) She is a pro at UNO already! And I am happy to have a little variety.

Labor Day Weekend

Isn't this one funny? Lucy is trying to dress herself, but she always gets both legs in the same hole! She still tries to stand up and walk, though unsuccessfully. We didn't do anything extravagant for the long weekend because we've all been recovering from colds. But, we enjoyed some favorites in our neighborhood! Here's the girls taking a break from our "hike" at Five Rivers. Anna Kate wore a dress!

Daddy treated us to ice cream before dinner one night at a "shack" - a seasonal place that sells soft-serve ice cream and other yummy things. This one is great; it's on the way to our grocery store and has an incredible yard. The girls love to swing, and so we spent most of our time swinging, except for when we ate our ice cream, of course!

A Big Cardboard Box

We finally bought a filing cabinet for the office. Once Dave unpacked the box, I knew I had an exciting activity for the next day!
Here's how we started after breakfast . . . a house, even with doors!
But after naps, it became so much more! A slide, a ramp, a wedge for doing forward rolls and flips! (You can see we have also had at least one outfit change that day. Let me just say that Anna Kate had 3 outfits, not including 2 different pjs, on today!)

I have to say, to my credit, that I did have the girls move the box to the living room. At least in the living room there is a little carpet. Of course, the couch is there, too, which seemed like a great diving board. I didn't let that jumping last long . . . I mean, how many times can you jump on an empty cardboard box and expect it to work? I do have these thoughts during times like this about what exactly I would say if someone got really hurt and I had to explain to a doctor what the girls were doing . . . "using an empty cardboard box as a slide, of course. Oh, and sometimes doing forward rolls down that slide. Don't you do that, too?"