David, Michele and … Piper

I think the title says it all.

As I’ve stated before, I love Play Group. I also love Thursdays because Play Group happens on Thursdays, the maid comes every other Thursday (we would probably eat rice and beans for breakfast, lunch and dinner before we gave up this HUGE luxury) and Date Night happens on Thursday nights. So I get a break from cleaning, a date with my husband and some great fellowship with great women, all in one day! If you ever need me to do you a favor, ask me on a Thursday because I tend to feel freed up and refreshed on Thursdays. I wouldn’t be surprised to find that most of my blog postings happen on Thursdays, but I haven’t reviewed that to confirm it. Knock yourself out if you’re bored.

Okay, back to Play Group. We have a couple of dynamos in our group who keep us organized and scheduled, which has helped to foster a really sweet commitment from the group itself, and most moms try to be there every week if at all humanly possible. Sidebar: I was very happy to relinquish all calendar-related items to other people–I don’t miss that about my pre-Pip job! So each month we meet twice at someone’s house (rotating out, though I’ve somehow managed to only host once so far???) and the other two times we have a planned outing–like a trip to the park or the Arboretum… or Owen’s Farm! Which is where we went two weeks ago. Yes, I’m a little bit behind.

We started out in the parking lot, waiting. Some of us are better waiters than others. Marshall is a happy waiter:

Egan is a tired but patient waiter:

Jake is a very quiet and content waiter:

Zane is a delightful waiter:

Thanks to the pacifier that Daddy hates, Piper is being a good waiter. In this moment:

Then there’s Mia. Get a load of this face:

Okay, okay. She wasn’t really very upset but the face is priceless!

After all that waiting, we made our way over to the billy goats where we were given little plastic cups full of feed. This was my favorite part of the outing because the goats were cute (except for one ridiculous and rude big guy who threw his weight around and knocked the smaller goats out of the way to get their feed) and there’s something very maternally satisfying about feeding another living thing. Unless we’re talking about our cats who are currently driving me crazy because it’s almost time to eat.

This little guy is SO cute, don’t you think? I love how the goats just pop up over the edge of the fence to eat:

This is Kora and Caleb, gettin’ their feed on:

This is Whitney and Egan. I think Egan might be sampling the goat feed, but I can’t be sure. At this age, one cannot be certain of anything when it comes to hands and the mouth:

Here’s Casey (our great organizer) and Marshall, taking a step back from the feeding process:

Kora and Caleb again:

Kristen and Jake:

Pip and the Paci checking out the goats through the fence:

Pip after losing all interest in the goats, now exploring for treasures. Current treasures = 1 deflated, red, heart-shaped balloon and 2 large pieces of gravel:

Kristen and Jake with Jennifer and Mia (despite the heat, our fashion diva, Jennifer, wore her jeans, boots and a white shirt and outfitted Mia in a little red handkerchief print–very impressive):

This is Lily and Paola. They win the award for Longest Distance Traveled each week. They live a good 30 or 40 minutes’ drive from the rest of us and still make it to most events.

The next part of the trip was a hayride tour around the farm, which the kids seemed to enjoy. I couldn’t understand a thing that our tour guide was saying, so I didn’t know about the baby geese that had recently hatched until I read Whitney’s blog and realized that I missed some big stuff on the trip. There were also long horns and horses and what not. And some sort of Giraffe Horse or something–again, I couldn’t hear very much. Here are some hayride shots…

Egan:

Caleb:

Mia:

Zane:

Oodles of little angels, one of which did not particularly like the feeling of hay on her backside. Who can blame her? Daddy, don’t look at the paci. We were in desperate need of a nap. I HAD to let her have it if we were going to finish the tour…

Here they all are at the end of the hayride (our tour guide was impressed with our slowness):

I love the look on Lily’s face in this shot–so sweet!

We then toured all the buildings on the farm and had a picnic lunch. Piper and I ate quickly and then hauled our little goat-loving tails homeward for a nap. Both of us were tired, but only one of us napped.

We love Play Group!

Summer is officially here. The temperature right now is 92 degrees. Anticipating the heat, I bought some sandbox toys for our next trip to Heights Park. The shovel is a little big so it’s hanging out in the backyard and will not be going to the park with us. Pipsqueak decided to carry it around for awhile the other day, even though it is almost bigger than she is.

Yay, shovel!

Who me? What?

The tongue is required in moments of intense concentration:

The lighting is “off” in this photo (and most of the others–still haven’t made time to read the manual), but I love the expression on Pip’s face.

One very easy, cheap and entertaining “toy” is the box of clothespins on the back patio. They see a lot of use in a week, and I find clips all over the place. I was amazed at Piper a few weeks ago because she was able to carry about 15 pins from the box on one side of the patio to the inside of a cat carrier sitting on top of a box on the other side of the patio. And she moved them one by one. That’s a lot of focus and concentration by someone her age, in a world of so many distractions!

To date, this is my favorite picture ever taken of Piper. I don’t think I need to explain myself.

Also taken on the same day… My two hunnies! One has a devilish look in her eyes while the other holds a little angel in his lap:

I love this photo of David but am sad that ‘Lil Bit isn’t looking:

I tried to buy a pool at Toys R Us a couple of weeks ago but they ran out of the one I wanted. I’m not sure what we’re going to do for water fun in the backyard when it gets even hotter this summer, but I got out the hose with the light sprinkle attachment the other night after Piper’s dinner and she went nuts! She. Loves. Water!

If it all works out, we are also taking swimming lessons in July with some of the Play Group moms/babies, so stay tuned! Perhaps Mom will learn a thing or two about swimming while we’re there…

When my Aunt Linda came to babysit last week, she put her sunglasses on the Little One who had just finished her dinner. At first, she just froze in place for a few seconds, wondering what was on her head and why, and then she started trying to yank them off. We laughed pretty hard.

The end.

After 11 or 12 months of house arrest, David and I began making weekly Date Nights a priority again. They should’ve been a priority THE WHOLE TIME, I know. We know. We’re sorry. We aren’t going to let it happen again. Part of the problem was coming up with reliable nighttime care for Pip while we were out and I couldn’t quite get my brain and heart around calling and interviewing a bunch of people. The perfect solution was right under our noses, however, and the above picture represents our Date Night “Help”. My Aunt Linda (Mom’s baby sister) is on the right and her bestie, Darlene, is on the left. You-Know-Who is front and center, hamming it up, as usual.

Speaking of hams. These two are really funny together. REALLY funny. And it does my heart good to see them together. They have been friends for 20+ years, which means they have weathered some good times and some really hard times, as BFF neighbors and as long-distance besties who wished they lived closer. They have cried together, prayed together and–OH MY!–as you can see, have they laughed together! Darlene has been a reliable presence for as long as I can remember. I don’t have enough fingers and toes to count the times that I have walked in the room and seen the two of them wiping their eyes and holding their stomachs, dying of laughter. And I won’t go into the details of their trip to Kohl’s to buy Pip the two new outfits you see her wearing below. Some stories are just entirely too much to repeat and this is one of those. Their friendship is made of gold, however, and I love being around them. And I love knowing that Pip is in good hands while we’re gone. Even if she’s just sleeping.

We had a quick pre-bath fashion show after they arrived with the new Pip Gear. The picture quality is horrible because I was unsuccessfully trying out a new setting on the camera while in bad lighting, but the subject matter is perfect.

Free at last!

Do I HAVE to keep this thing on??

I can TRY to pull it off of myself…

Learning how to read tags:

Get me outta here! These ladies are crazy!

Okay, fine! I think they’re funny, too.

What sound does a lion make?  Rrrrroar~

Thanks, Lindy and Dar! We love you guys!