Playdough and Picnics

The kids and I had a full and fun day at home today. This morning while I baked cookies the girls fixed their hair in the stylishist fashion. Cole had slept late, and he sat in his high chair shoveling oatmeal into his mouth while I baked -- as ever, a great little companion, interested and eager. The cookies were done and the girls were getting restless, so I suggested playdough. This idea was very well received, although my other idea was not so popular: that they clean up the living room before we got the playdough out. They finally managed to get everything put away, and all three kids enjoyed making playdough cakes and mountains.

Then we cleaned up all the playdough and went outside with our sandwiches, grapes, carrots, and of course fresh cookies for a picnic on a blanket in the yard. Still jacket weather, but sunny and nice to be outside. "Julie, it really IS spring!! Look, look!!" Claire exclaimed, pointing to crocuses coming up in the lawn. Lilah pointed to the bare branches of the cherry tree. "Julie, we're going to have a cherry tree when it's summer!" We prayed for our lunch in German (at Claire's request) and watched the clouds scuttling across the sky as we ate. "Light off! Dark!" Cole exclaimed when they went over the sun.

This evening Mark and Heather went out for dinner so the munchkins and I were left to our own devices again. We had fanciful fun at dinner -- Lilah was Cindy Lou and I was her big brother Bobby Fred; Claire was the mother. Then we played forest (which was unfortunately cut short by a solid bonk between Lilah's forehead and Claire's teeth), and read stories, and sang and prayed and shared highs and lows from the day, and now all the little ones are quiet in their beds. See you tomorrow, friends!