Posing on Benches Comparision, vol. 2

This time I've done the photo hunting legwork for you.  It turns out, I pose my children on little benches a lot.  After the flashback on the butterfly bench at Stan Hywet, I started paying attention in these photo folders.  This set is from the Botanical Gardens, inside a little spiral maze of trees.  (I must've mashed my way through there with the stroller when they were just littles.)

There's another one at the zoo that I'll have to recreate for you soon, as well. 

April, 2010:  Grumpy old ladies.                                

July, 2012: Naomi's feet almost reach the ground!

 Do you think I'll still be able to squeeze them in there when they're 14? 

Oh, and here's Naomi, building a fairy house.

Tea For Two

We had tea this week with Grandma Rand, before she and William went off to Texas to visit Uncle Dale.  The girls were very dedicated about pouring cup after cup and Grandma was very polite about drinking them all. 

In the manners department, things started to fall apart a bit

when they bit the edge of the cups and snorted into them to hear the echo of their own oinks.

They're so civilized.

But, apparently they can pull it all together when you take them out in public.   Nana, the girls and I had a girls day out in Medina this week.  We went to the used bookstore where the girls each picked out two books.  They were charming and engaging with the lovely women who were working the checkout desk.  Each girl was issued her own shopping bag to carry her books to or next stop, Miss Molly's Tea House.  This place is an eruption of lace and flowered wallpaper.  The hostess was wearing a big floppy white hat and it didn't seem the least bit out of place.  I began to have second thoughts after they seated us at a lace covered table with real place settings for the girls. 

Then another patron walked by, winked at me and mom and said, "You're being very brave."

Then I read the bottom of the kid's menu that stated, "Parents are responsible for the behavior of their children."

A little cold sweat is good for everyone, right?

Then they brought each girls milk in their own porcelain teapot with a tiny china cup and saucer to drink it out of.

Oh, dear god.

But, really.  Really.  It couldn't have gone any better. 

The waitress was delightful, the girls were very much enamored of their little milk pots and mom's and my food was delicious.  Watermelon cucumber soup?  Yes, please.  

Lillian and Naomi were great about helping to pour out their tiny cups of milk, sipping them and placing  them gently back in the saucer.  

And?  Miss Molly's is attached to a toy store.  It's like a paradise.

Imelda

If Imelda Marcos had been a tiny, impish leprechaun, that is.

This is what Naomi did just before going to bed last night.  I saw her galloping from the changing table where we keep the shoes to the kitchen a few times, giggling, but didn't know what she was up to.  Well.  Now I know.

Message in a bottle

Familybez, who are you!?  I get lots of traffic from your site but can't get to your blog.  Unmask yourself!

Napa Valley Baby

 

Not really.  It's water at Wade Oval Wednesday.  But doesn't she look like she should be in a sun warmed hilltop vineyard?

The Madames Curie in Training

Vinegar, food coloring, baking soda.  Voila.  Captivated babes.

Masters of Communication

It's hard to make out a lot of the dialogue here, but before the video begins, Lillian was swatting the bubble wand around shouting, "Come here!"  Naomi appears at the bottom of the stairs.  Once she grabs her sister's face, you can only hear a few words, but what I gather is "Let's just do bubbles, okay?"

Independence



In full disclosure, this is not from today.
Adorable patriotism has no time stamp.



I think that most of our summer days could be marked as a celebration of Independence Day.  The most frequently used phrase in our house is "I do it!"  The girls are remarkably proficient at things like putting on their own shoes, putting their laundry down the chute and climbing into their high chairs.  One of these things is more nerve-wracking than the others.

Things have been delightfully busy here.  I went to New York City this weekend with four other girls from college. The men all stayed home with kid duty and the ladies celebrated our independence around a very hot city for four days and it was wonderful.  I didn't take a single useful photo.  But I did eat dim sum, take in a drag show, ride the Staten Islad ferry, march around much of Central Park and go to the top of Rockefeller Center.  It was amazing and overwhelming and hot.  I'll get some of the other girls to send pictures that I can post here.



Also not from today.



We celebrated the fourth at Nat and Amanda's today.  Their neighborhood has the most adorable block of celebration ever.  They gather in front yards, chat, play games, have their own parade with neighborhood musicians and kids on spangled bicycles.  They had the Rocket Car doing loops around the block.  Naomi loved the ride with Daddy, but Lillian panicked at the last second so she and I just waved from the sidewalk.  We of course missed the actual parade due to naps but went back in the evening for grilled meat,  baby pools and sparklers and popsicles.  Perfection.

To conclude our celebration of independence, I shall free myself from any theme or narration for the rest of this post.  Here are some random pictures.







Nana learned the recipe to make your own face paint. 




If you go back to, i think, October of 2010, you'll see a picture of two much smaller versions of these people on this bench.




We saw butterlies at Stan Hywet.  I love this picture.



This one, too.