Miss Dress-Up

It rained today. Since we were hanging out indoors, the girls played dress-up. There's hardly a day that goes by that they don't play princess or ballerina or supergirl. A rainy day was a good a reason as any. Today A was a cowgirl and C was a princess. Usually A is all decked out with the frilly princess dresses, so I had to snap a pic with her in cowgirl mode. My mother-in-law (the kids call her Nana) kept these play clothes from Matt's childhood. The vest and chaps are the same ones that her daddy wore when he was a little guy! I dug out a pic from his memory book. What a cutie!

Here's one of C riding off into the sunset this afternoon on her trusty sidekick, Steady. In the movie, Beauty and the Beast, there is a scene where Belle is trying to calm her horse, Philippe. She says, over and over, "Woah! Steady boy." Since that day, A has named all horses Steady. This horse swing is no exception. My mom bought the kids this fun swing and we hung it in the basement. Summers here are short and we figured it would get a lot more use if it was indoors. The kids love it.



This weekend was really busy. Matt tilled the garden with a rototiller we borrowed from some friends. Thanks Halls! I spent most of Saturday preparing my planting beds. The last couple of years I have made a Mittleider garden. If you want to learn more, you can check it out here. Matt was out helping build a garage and then helping some friends move, so I had the "help" of all 3 kids in the yard. I was in the garden with a level & a rake trying to get the planting beds level until 11:44pm. It was pitch black outside, but I felt like I accomplished a lot. Now, as soon as it stops raining I'll be able to get it planted.

Here's a pic of my handsome little helper.
After church on Sunday, my mom called to say that she, my dad and my brother were on the way to come visit. What a fantastic surprise! It is always great to spend time with mom and dad (Grandma and Papa.) I often wish we lived closer so that we could spend more time together. It was a fantastic weekend! I am still wiped out.

The Castle

Time to clean out the garage. We had 7 big recycle bags full of empty milk jugs and pop cans filling up the front of the garage, so I decided that it was time to take them in to the bottle depot. I loaded up the kids and loaded up the bags and headed off. We were almost there when A yells, "Stop, Mom!!"  She's pointing out the window at the weirdest thing ever.

It's a big steel castle down the street from the bottle depot. Is it possible that it's been there all along and I've never noticed it before? Of course, the kids all wanted to go into Cinderella's castle. I told them we couldn't because the dragons might get us and it was too dangerous. They seemed ok with that.
Oh, I almost forgot. On the same trip A asked me how a baby gets out of its mommy's tummy. I gave her a pretty brief explanation, but she seemed to understand. She wondered where all the blood comes from. Did somebody show my daughter a birthing video or something without my knowledge? Four years old and already asking the big questions.