A walk in the woods

There's a little park in town that has a trail behind it out through the woods. The girls were a little nervous of it at first because they asked Christina what the signs said and she answered honestly that they say that bears are present in those woods. They got over it when I told them the solution to that was making lots of noise! Now they like to go there with their "horses" to take them on a "trail ride."

 

It was a beautiful day, and we had so much fun!  Both girls were feeling in a picture-taking mood, which made for some lovely shots of them together.

 

 It even turned out that the girls wanted to be photographers themselves, so they took turn taking pictures of Christina and whichever girl was not being photographer - awesome!

A few more of their cuteness, which just keeps getting more and more adorable! 

First Benson's of the Season

Every year we go to Benson's Farm to get our pumpkins.  Last year we went several times, and we're carrying on that tradition by beginning our visits already.  Our dear friends Kate and Annie took us on an outing there and sweetly bought us pumpkins and mums.  Although we look forward to going back as a family with Steve this was a perfect fall outing with our friends!

 

 

Good Night

Tonight while we were getting ready for bed, Clara very loosely paraphrased Madeline and exclaimed:

"We brush our teeth, we brush our bread, and most of all we brush our head."

Such a silly rhymer!

Rolling, rolling, rolling....

What could these two be looking at?

What could amp them up like this?

What could cause such an outbreak of silliness?

It's the....ROLLER DERBY!

We had seen the roller derby girls at the Homecoming parade last week, and had always thought the idea of roller derbies was fun...so this Friday when they were having a derby in town we took the girls and headed over.

It was nearly impossible to photograph, because these women are FAST!  Also, the lighting is ODD!  Because they're going for drama on the center rink, not people getting good pictures from the balcony, we guess.

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Still, we had a lot of fun watching.  We started shouting out things like "LEAD JAMMER!" and as we left both Clara and Elena told us they were roller girls, and made us address them by saying things like "Thank you, roller girl." "Can I help you get into your seat, roller girl?"  Eventually they started going so far as to say "Thank you, roller Mommy!"  When we got home they had to practice being roller girls on the wood floors in their socks.  Such a funny new set of vocab and play for us.

Rainy Day Ballet

It has been very, very rainy here lately. We've had almost a week straight of solid rain. Luckily, Elena and Clara LOVE their raincoats, and always get lots of compliments on them, so we have our fun even if we can't do some of the outdoor things we'd planned.

 

On Thursdays the girls still have their dance class, which they enjoy so much more this year than they even did last year.  They ask often if it is dance class day, and they rush in for every class.

We like the class because it is focused on creative movement more than it is on any steps or form, and the kids really just enjoy moving their bodies in new ways.

Elena and Clara are each teacher's pets.  They each really love to be right near a teacher, and luckily there are three teachers in this class of about 8 kids.  Good odds!

Elena gets a little air here as she flits across the room with Miss Lindsay.

Clara enjoys the skipping portion of the class with Miss Roxanne.

Clara illustrates how to go across the room low and slow.

And then she rushes out to jump and grab her scarf.  It's easy to see how happy she is, and it's beautiful to see the girls enjoying something so much!

Humane Society

Ever since Christina made up a camp for the girls this summer that involved going to visit the Humane Society Clara and Elena have been dedicated to this shelter. They go at least once a week. Most times they pet the cats, and give treats to the dogs, and generally socialize the animals a bit. Sometimes we bake treats to bring there.

They talk about it so much at school that their preschool teacher asked about it, and Christina went in to class to talk about what the other kids in class could do at the Humane Society (adopt, visit, donate, etc.) and then helped them all to make treats for the pets. These are pictures we took to share with their class at school, since Clara and Elena were the designated treat-deliverers.

The cats are generally very happy to see the girls, and love eating the tuna treats we make.

There is one whole room dedicated to kittens!  The only get crumbs of the treats, but they are very enthusiastic.

The dog wing is LOUD!

 

Also, the dogs stay in kennels and we don't pet them there, so I don't think the visit is as much fun for them.  We do throw them treats, which they always gobble up.

 

For them the treats aren't just for fun - they are a learning tool.

The learning seems to work pretty well - this pretty girl sat right down as soon as we asked her to.

Next Saturday the girls have their official training date, and then they are going to be real volunteers who will go with Christina to help change litter boxes, feed the animals their regular food, brush them, etc.  We're also going to try taking more flattering pictures of the dogs and cats for the adoption website - it's a challenging photographic assignment, but should be fun!