Bathtime often involves princesses in dogs. Last bathtime C7 lined them up for a group shot.

Clown murder

Chalk. Scraped. Wet down. Stepped in. Painted with. Smeared on clothes, hair, body. Good fun.

Biking

Q5 has always been somewhat interested in biking. We had a little pedal-free bike for her that she enjoyed (the Skuut!) but she decided to give the pedal bikes a try last night. Yes, they were covered in mud. Yes, the tires were flat. Yes, the seat was too low, and the handlebars were too low. But we fixed all that (and by we I mean C42. Heh.) but there is just enough room for her knees.

We need to make this a priority to we can bike to the ice cream shop which is how I anticipate we may get C7 to attempt to bike.










Love the bell!!

Climb ev'ry mountain!

The girls put on some shows for me. As you can see we are still in the throws of The Sound of Music.

crankitude

Before dinner last night Q5 and C7 started getting pesky and irritable and really were being mean to each other.

After finally rounding them up and getting them calm and putting some fruit in their bellies (pear for Q5, apple for C7) (FWIW, we call these pre-dinner fruits and veggies "appletizers") I asked them to tell me what they liked about their sister. I started with Q5, then asked C7. Then Q5 again. And so forth. We went back and forth at least 10 times and by the end they both were in good moods and were feeling very affectionate toward each other.

Some of what Q5 likes about C7:
Her clothing choices
The fact that C7 was a good big sister
The fact that C7 made me and C42 a mom and a dad
C7s sweet voice

Some of what C7 likes about Q5:
Q5 is adorable
The fact that Q5 made C7 a sister
Q5's ability to make C7 laugh
The games they play together

Turn of phrase.

C5 is on the couch. Drawing. Q5 is in the tub. Bathing.

But C7 just yelled up: "You shook my world, Q5!"

When asked WHY Q5 shook her world C7 just said Q5 sounded really CRAZY.

National Arboretum

Yes, yes, I know, we go here all the time. This week we went with MEME, walked through Fern Valley. Q5 started kind of cranky, but did snap out of it. Here is grouchy Q5. I'm not sure what that really was about.






But C7 accommodated our quest for photo-ops




We tried to walk the whole way around, but kept getting distracted by things. Like our favorite spot, which for the girls was the same exact place.




After Q5 heard that this was C7s favorite spot, she made it her favorite spot.




As you walk the fern trail you go over a lot of bridges





Sometimes more than once. They ran this bridge at least twice, maybe three times.



By the long bridges you can take a detour off to the side onto the praire loop. We saw tons of black-eyed susans, asters, and other flowers that the butterflies were loving.





And from that spot we could see the National Columns, so we headed that way.





The sun was SHINING and the girls ran around a lot, getting hot. MEME and I hung out in the shade of the columns until it was time to walk back to fern valley. Both girls were drooping from the heat, but along the way back I saw what I thought were slug trails until I accidentally crunched something on the path. SNAIL trails! I pointed them out the the girls and C7 proceeded to removed every remaining snail from the path and toss it into the grass.

Back to fern valley and we had to take a break on one of the many benches.





We walked around the rest of fern valley, it was cool and lovely and we stopped at every bench.

There were a lot of mushrooms everywhere, as there are everywhere in the region because of the copious rainfall we've had this last month and a half. Lots of ferns (obviously).





We finished our walk looking for the frogs in the frog pond. Last time we took the walk I remember they were out and croaking away. Not this time. But Q5 was completely happy, as was C7.