Rainy Days

They hear the rain and run out the door. 

Sometimes just to run in circles on the deck. 
Sometimes to blast around the house a few times. 
Sometimes to stomp in puddles that seem to form instantly in certain places.
Often with umbrellas to play with. 
Always barefoot. 
Always until they are soaked through.

In this spring and summer that seem to be the driest ever, we are loving these refreshing downpours!!

The Best Yard

Mom and Greg's new place is amazing.  The property is gorgeous everywhere you turn.  The moss-covered paths winding through the woods are perfect for barefoot adventures. But there are also huge grassy meadows where you can just run and run forever.  This is kid-paradise.

She Loves Horses

 Ever since she laid eyes on Trip, the sweet brown horse, at our milk farm years ago, it's been true infatuation for Chloe.  She thinks about horses all day long.  She pretends she IS a horse nearly the entire day, answering my questions with emphatic whinnies or snorts and head tossing.  She neighs in agreement to things or stamps a hoof in anger.

She gallops everywhere.  She draws or paints half a dozen horse pictures every week, sometimes that many in one day.  Sometimes she makes murals of horses or tracings or cut-outs and hangs them up all over the walls in every room of the house.  She builds small stables out of everything -- books, logs, stones, blocks, empty boxes, pieces of cloth and pipe-cleaners.  Her bedside wall is plastered with magazine and calendar cutouts of horses.

She has read every picture book about horses available at the library and never tires of them.  Her "looking books" are full of bookmarks on her (seventeen) favorite horse pictures for quick and easy reference.  She has dozens of horse figures to play with, but surprisingly she doesn't sit and play all that often.  This horse infatuation is deeper than toys can express.  Don't get me wrong, she loves her horse set-ups and accessories, but she would rather be imagining and living as the horse.

I wonder what it's like inside her daydreams.... I wonder where she goes on her imaginary horse rides.... I wonder what it is that appeals to her so deeply..... the strength, the beauty, the power, the majesty of a horse?
 

Out of curiosity, I asked her once, what made her so interested in horses.  She thought for a long while, her eyes sifting through mental pictures, before answering slowly and thoughtfully, "I just love the shape of them."  It was the perfect answer, really.  Just vague enough to keep me wondering, but solid enough to say that even she can't explain the mystery in her captivated heart.

She doesn't like horses.  She loves them.

Cappucino

Meet Cappucino -- my Mom and Greg's new kitty cat. 

They are in the process of moving out to Edinboro and this lovely animal came with the deal :-)  Evan and Chloe love him even more than they love Hitches at the farm, and that's saying a lot.

He's cuddly, friendly, sweet and likes to be held!!  Truly part of the family right away!

Trail Walk to the Creek

When we go into the woods I usually pretend it's my own backyard (minus the fact that I had to drive there).  Kids seem to do this naturally.
At our favorite spots where we take Evan and Chloe, I observe how they start to own it.

In Asbury Woods, this secluded deck on a hill is their clubhouse. 

Last weekend, as usual, they led the way down the trail, past familiar fallen trees and trail forks to find it.  Their clubhouse.

If they jump off the bench hard enough at the same moment, they can "shake the trees."

They scatter like dandelion seeds when we are on trails.... just like it's their own backyard.

Even when we don't plan to go to the creek we seem to end up there anyway.  Of course, I have always dreamed that our future backyard will have access to a creek, or a stream at the very least....

The shoes come off as everyone settles in......

And we feel like we are at home.

Play Ball

 We played ball in the backyard the other night in true tired-parents form.  We sat on our swing while the kids stood in front of us to play.  They also ran after every stray ball.  It was lovely :-)

 Evan has always found this game to be very funny.  The sound the ball makes, the crazy directions it bounces, the colliding of two balls in the air, a ball bashing mom in the face and making her glasses fall off..... a ball rebounding off dad's head and going into the branches.... it goes on and on and he just runs around laughing....

Chloe is getting much better at playing ball now that she has some upper body strength!

 Throw!!! Catch!!!!

Evan gets so giggly sometimes that he can't stop laughing, and everything he thinks about or says is hilarious.  Eventually he cries from laughing so hard :-)

After a whole lot of throwing, catching, chasing the ball around, I asked the kids to put their arms around each other for a cute picture..... Here's what I got:

Cute :-)

Splishy-Splashy

On hot days, my mom keeps alittle pool set up for grand-kid drop-ins. 

It really draws you in when the only thing in your own yard is a slip-n-slide on it's way to the trash pile (full of irreparable holes) and a concrete mixing basin fit for only one 5 year old at a time.

Chloe can actually practice "swimming" in it :-)

Meanwhile Evan finds ways to fashion ordinary pool/yard toys into projectiles.

After a few hours they peter out and the pool has worked it's magic.

Drying off.....

Chloe was too tired for me to take her picture.

"Whatever you do, just don't smile. AT ALL. okay??"

Works every time.  Just like the pool.