We came home from the weekend conference to a wonderfully clean house: only one couple had needed to stay there! So Mommy had some free time today... and with a bit cooler morning she sprung a nature walk by the Rideau river on the girls. It was great! Not sure who enjoyed it more: the girls or Mommy!

Right away they found the boat dock and off came the dresses so they could have a good splash. do you think mommy could get those dresses back on? Not till we'd been out about an hour and they were getting hot.

We saw a little bit of wild life:


and imagined the world from a tiny frog's point of view:
We also were joined by a friendly black lab called Phoebe and her owner out for a walk-swim-fetch. Grace and Jasmin were quite fascinated by the dog's ability to catch the ball in the air and to find it it the water. Phoebe's owner was also very friendly and won Grace's confidence so that the two of them chatted away about all sorts for a long time before us adults got to introduce ourselves:
"By the way, I'm Dan," offering his hand.
"Liz.." before I could continue with what I had in mind, Grace turns back in front of us, offers her hand to Dan and says, "and I'm Grace!"
Both girls were disappointed to have to turn around and leave Dan and Phoebe, but I don't think we could have made it to the end of the trail and back since Mommy hadn't brought the stroller or backpack carrier. As it was, Mommy had to carry Jasmin much of the way back! A very pleasant way of making sure she takes an afternoon nap :o)

We finally made it into the woods last week. Mommy made sure we all wore long pants and socks, and used bug spray, but we still had to abort our jaunt earlier than we really wanted to because of the mosquitoes. We heard no woodpeckers this time, though we saw plenty of evidence that hungry ones live in this patch of woods still! Grace and Jasmin were easily enough distracted into finding and picking berries. Unfortunately none that we could actually eat, but I guess that was okay since we only came home with 4 grubby handfuls - even though they picked steadily for 20 minutes or so! (As their hands got full, for every berry they picked, one or two fell out :o)

The latest balancing bouncing game for Mommy's two monkeys:
At least this one is helpful - they actually pumped up a whole air mattress for me! We had to do two of them: our house will be temporarily home for 4-5 out of town couples coming to our churches' annual combined conference. Not to worry about all the work - we won't be there! We are joining the youth conference at a different overnight location, so I just have to leave the house with beds made up...


Grace discovering what all the levers and switches do in the car. Don't panic, Daddy and Jasmin are in the back seat. She told Mommy later that she was driving them to the "big church" on Sunday.

Guess its time Mommy took them to the park...

Country girl getting desperate in the city... (and a curious girl who begged to try!)


We've been reading this book lots on account of all the rain and this country girl's longing to find some good mud - to make use of all the rain!
then, last evening we went flower picking in the builder's rubble field and found - mud! Not the best smelling, but wonderfully smooth and great for mucking around.
Can you imagine what Jasmin was like if our finicky, must-stay-clean Grace was doing this? I had to convince her by example that it was fun, but then she was quite into it! I enjoyed not being a mommy and leading the messy fun. Though I didn't quite dare to example the mud clay molding I longed to do. We'll have to go back in proper play clothes :o)Jasmin kicking up some fun. It wasn't too long after this that Grace said rather panicky, "Grace gotta go home take a bath!"

And one last pic for fun:
After supper dressup - the girls dress Daddy up, he's not actually allowed to do anything!

We were at the park one rare sunny evening last week. Grace was taken by these three girls about 6-7 years old zipping around on bikes. She took over our thank you prayers that evening with:
"Thank you God that Mommy and Daddy get me a bike"! In the morning, over her must-have cheerios, she asked, "Where's my bike?" We explained to her that she needed to be bigger, maybe when she was 5 we could get her a bike. All that day she kept telling us "Grace is 5 now!" A bike kept cropping up in our conversations, so we caved and found a good used trike that we got yesterday afternoon. We were saving to give it to her today, and then last night another prayer: "Hi God. This is Grace. I want to ride my bike please."
So this morning we sat her down and explained that she was too small for a bike, but God, Mommy and Daddy loved her so much that we were giving her a trike. Daddy explained that God doesn't always give us what we ask for but He gives us what we need. She wasn't that surprised or demonstrative when she saw it (she must have faith :), but the intensity of her learning and riding showed just how full she was about getting one. We spent a lot of the morning in the driveway! Jasmin was pretty taken by it too. They did really well sharing turns.