Monday, April 11, 2011

Painting Rocks and Climbing Trees

This weekend was mostly spent in and around the house because both of the girls were down with a nasty cold and cough.  We had a great time just hanging out together, but not much to report.  (We did finally get caught up on laundry thanks to Grandma Fifi and all of her help!)

Last weekend was great. The weather was nice and we spent a lot of time in the yard. The highlights were both Josie-inspired.  She & Louie decided to collect and paint rocks to look like bugs, and Josie was very engaged in that work for most of the afternoon.

Later she got it in her mind that she wanted to climb her first tree. We have enormous trees in our yard - not the best for climbing unless you had a ladder to reach the lowest branch. Luckily Lou realized that we had the "perfect" tree in our side yard and up she went. I love this first one of her looking up at the tree. Her face says it all.
 
I love these moments when Josie tackles something that she previously thought herself too small or too young or too scared to do before. She was so unbelievably proud of herself after this. (Made very obvious by the fact that she first declared before climbing that I should bring the camera, later she announced that she would tell all of her teachers about this at school on Monday, then she asked if we could go get all the neighbors so they could see her in the tree.) 




Oh how we love our brave little girl!  This one is my favorite - if you haven't already noticed the headband that she rocked all weekend, I think this shot just about sums up Josie - climbing trees in princess shoes:
In other weekend news, spring arrived on our block!  I am trying with everything I have not to get my hopes up too high and to try to be realistic about what we can actually accomplish in our yard this summer. But for now I am just positively giddy about the tulips and and daffodils and green buds on all the trees!

And - we have a woodpecker! We hear him often and over the weekend we finally captured him on film (albeit blurry film).
And we definitely now know his favorite tree - with telltale holes all the way up and down the trunk - that little stinker.
Days like these confirm we made the right choice by leaving the city and getting a yard. We love it here in EWH!