Call Day #5, 7/29/13

Breakfast with Grandma on the screened in porch.  Many thanks to Mimi and Papa Jimmy for the table and chairs!  They are getting lots of use.

Erik is hoping to teach Eleanor to play trumpet.  She just got her tiny-sized trumpet yesterday so she was very eager to play it today.  There are a few rules about where she can play it so that it's not lying around the house or waking up Oliver.  Here she is in our closet playing.  

Candy Land with Grandpa and Grandma.

After we took Grandma and Grandpa to the airport, we stopped at Walmart.  The girls were eager to go because Grandma and Grandpa had given them each some money and they wanted to buy Icees.  

Excited!

On the way out of the store, still drinking, Eleanor said "It was a sad time because we had to take Grandma and Grandpa to the airport.  Now it's a happy time because we can have Icees."

This afternoon we made popsicles.  Claire pours juice into the mold.

Putting in the holders.  They were excited because they popsicles are like fancy-shaped jewel ring pops.

Oliver was happy for quite a while with a bin of toys next to him.  He'd reach over and empty them out, we'd refill, and he'd go at it again.

Call Day #4, 7/24/13

Grandma and Grandpa are visiting.  The new headbands Grandma brought soon ended up on the wrong grandchild.

Oliver spends much of the day flapping his arms and kicking his legs to show he's happy.  Very reminiscent of Eleanor at the same age; similar blurry pictures.

We spent the morning at the pool.  Snack break.

Oliver charms Grandma.

Sun hat.

Returning from a previous trip to the pool, Erik had the girls walk up to the garage door and say "Open sesame" while he covertly pushed the garage door opener.  Now when we walk home, they want to walk up to the door and say it in unison to see if the door will open.  They might really believe in their door opening abilities!

Our realtor and friend Desiree had left us some yummy peaches while we were out.  Claire ate a few for lunch.

Growing up with big sisters...

We did some errands this afternoon and the girls got goggles.  Eleanor's been working on going underwater to pick up rings and other items as well as swimming under water.  Claire wanted to have some too, of course.  Here's to many more trips to the pool!

Call Day #3, 7/22/13

Morning dollhouse play.

Art time.

Eleanor requested that her easel be unpacked and set up outside.  She took out her watercolors and painted scenes from outside.  Nanny's influence, for sure.

Claire colors while listening to music.  Her pick?  Bluegrass!  We haven't been in North Carolina long but they're getting some of the local culture already.  (This was after seeing a live bluegrass band at a barbecue place last week.)

Oliver is starting to enjoy books (now that they're not packed anymore!).

Sweet smile.

More fun with the easel.  By this point the chalk and dry erase markers were being used too.  The girls had changed into their nightgowns for a game they were playing together.  Eleanor was the Mommy, Claire and the doll were her children, and I was the grandmother.

We went to the library.  Claire loads up her picks.

Eleanor and Claire got their first-ever library cards!  And are very excited about them.  I've already gotten a request to go there again tomorrow.  Also, Eleanor heard the librarian say that each card can check out 50 books.  Not long after she told me that 50 + 50 is 100 and if you add another 50 it would be 150 books.  I told her I can't carry that many.  She proposed filling up the stroller.

We had a picnic dinner at the park in our neighborhood.

Claire and Eleanor check out a spider web.  They decided it was really neat that God made spiders able to make things like that.

Oliver's first swing.  I didn't want him to fall forward so I shoved a lunch bag in front of him.  He happily chewed on it and swung.

Eleanor pushed him.

They wanted their picture taken "with all three of us swinging."

"Look, Mama, I'm kicking my little legs off."

Call Day #2, 7/18/13

Sitting at their art table in the kitchen.  Such a great little corner that gets lots of use.

Eleanor watches the hummingbird feeder Nanny and Papa set up, hoping a bird will discover it.

Excited to hear that a big present from Aunt Linda was delivered by Nanny and Papa.  It was hiding under a blanket, and they were eager to see!

Girls seeing doll house for the first time and playing with it.

Claire jumped right in to playing.

 Looking at the tea party set.

Playing with the sandbox-turned-pool on the deck.

Oliver's really great makeshift highchair.  He can't sit up well enough to use his real highchair but he can sit in the Bumbo.  When it's set on our bar stool with the cushion flipped up, he can sit and be high enough to see all the action.

He watched Nanny and the girls do an art project this morning.

At lunch, he had bananas for the second time.  He likes to eat!  Claire and Eleanor both wanted a chance to feed him.

Where we found Papa and Oliver this afternoon.  Oliver already knows to hold the steering wheel when playing racing games.

Claire and Oliver played peek-a-boo under the coffee table.

Love the laugh.

After dinner bubbles on the screened-in porch.

Admiring a bubble.

Call Day #1, 7/16/13

Eleanor found a chore chart we had been given long ago and modified it.  She ADDED jobs for herself!  Her self-designed morning routine now includes making her bed, sharing, and helping out.  We're only on Day 2 but I'll take it while it lasts.  Also, very typical Claire get-up: ballet recital outfit and baby carrier.

It didn't take us long to find our new library.  This was our second trip, and this time we went for story time.

Eleanor's favorite part of the library?  The really big double-sided shelf of early reader books.  A whole shelf that is just the right level for her to read herself!  I don't think she checked out any books from any other part of the library.

Checking out the garden behind the library.

In the afternoon, we went to a neighbor's house to play with a slip and slide and in the sprinkler.  We're excited that there is a family just down the street with two girls close in age to Eleanor and Claire!

Hooray for water on a hot North Carolina day!