Just an ordinary week

This week delivered some beautiful weather, and we tried to take advantage of it.  Throughout the summer Charlie has to hunt for stray walnuts to play with.  Now he has 100s of them at his fingerprints.  They are starting to rot, but they are still treasures in his eyes.


Taylor exchanged the bike she got from her Grandmama to get one that was a little smaller.  She enjoyed riding it in the driveway and practicing using brakes.  I took the opportunity to practice panning with my camera.


Just a quick break from our outdoor shots to show Morgan's elmo shirt.  She loves it and tried to convince me to let her wear it three days in a row.  I drew the line at two.


On Thursday, the forecast indicated that it might be our last warm day for a while so Mark and I took the kids to the outlet mall.  They played on the playground.  Then we shopped for new shoes and finished the night with some ice cream.  My favorite part was when Taylor showed us her new little dance she invented.  It looked like a version of river dancing in fast forward.


Another of my sweetie.  This was at the playground before she gained the confidence to explore.


Ever since Charlie received this lego kit from Grandma he's been asking me when we could put it together.  Friday was the day.  We started with 250 individual pieces.


About an hour later we had these.


Friday was also the day of Taylor's first pep rally.  She could not have been more excited about it.




I must give credit to Mark for getting the children such a great educational birthday present.  They love their state quarter maps.  On Saturday morning, I smiled while listening to Taylor rattle off random facts about the states.  "Rhode Island is not really an island.  Hawaii is the only island in the US."  Followed by Charlie's "Alaska is the biggest state even though it looks like Texas is on this map."  Then Taylor "Texas is the weirdest shaped state."  And my favorite "Did you know that you could go from Ohio to Kentucky in a boat or canoe?  It's true because there's a river between them."


On Saturday Charlie's soccer game was canceled.  We stayed in and helped the kids organize their banks.  Both kids set aside $20 for a Christmas donation project we have coming up.  (More on that in a future post).




Aunt Jan and cousin Alison came to visit with us on Saturday, too.  They brought birthday gifts for the kids and enjoyed a pizza lunch with us.  (Taylor is frowning because she really wanted that ball Charlie is holding.)  Aunt Jan also introduced me to the wonderful world of Pinterest.  Very tempting....


I leave you with a few photos of Morgan at the table.




It may be time for a haircut.