Saturday

We started this Saturday as we usually do,at the Farmer's Market.

It's getting good - we are moving on from the early spring crops into the early summer crops.  We are also part of a CSA so we have more greens than we can handle at the moment, but we went to the market anyway just to pick up a few things and to enjoy the scene.

A great part of the scene, in the girls' minds, is the grassy open area next to where the farmers set up.  There are fish sculptures, and rocks that are great for climbing (or defying gravity, as Clara appears to be doing).

And away she goes!

Elena was happy to bask in the sun from the top of the sculpture for a long time (she was probably worried about losing her place there).

But eventually she got in on the fun jumping, too.

And then we ran into our friends with twins just about to turn two!  You may remember them from earlier posts on the blog.  They are getting so brave - check out Lucie on the rock with the big girls (and how is it possible that OUR girls are the big girls??).

Clara and Elena really enjoyed being in a mentorship role (though we had to redirect when Clara's modeling of how to stand up on the rocks was compelling enough that she tried it, too, and she has a bit too little balance yet for that maneuver!).

Lucie and Amelia, offering some carrots and water to Clara and Elena. 

 

Then we went home to work on various home improvement tasks that we have before us.  The one the girls have been most excited for is redoing this cedar kid's picnic table a friend gave us.  Clara really did use the electric sander to help get it ready, though this is just a re-enactment for reasons of both safety and shyness.

There was a great debate on some paint colors, but in the end we decided to put tape down the middle and let them each choose a color - we got kind of lucky that they went together as well as they did.

Laboring away.  This is about as long as Elena labored - she got this part done, and a little of her bench, and then told Christina that she could "help" finish.

Clara, on the other hand, was in it almost the entire time, working really carefully.  She would even say that: "I like to take my time.  I want to do a careful job."  She had some real pride in working well.

Elena, for her part, supported her sister by popping little cookies into her mouth when she was too busy painting to stop for her own snack.

It was actually a pretty quick project, and by the evening meal the paint had dried enough on the table for them to sit at it to eat.  And oh, they were so excited to do that.  They were very into making the rules at their own table.  For instance, "At our table, the rule is you can bring toys to the table!"

"At our table, we play with our food!" (hence, the corncob holder placement on Elena's corn).

There were some other rules (one involving them getting eat before Steve and I instead of waiting for everyone to come to the table).  You might guess that each of these rules runs in opposition to our typical table rules.  Steve and Christina ate out on the patio and were not so terribly disappointed to be missing out on the kid-table-dining.  Those girls were doing just fine by themselves.