Fun outside

It's been such a hot summer, but after a few days of rain, I decided that we could probably survive an hour outside this morning. I also discovered Yard Guard to keep the mosquitos away. It works amazingly well.

First, we spent some time on the swings. Caroline actually asked me to push her a little bit, which feels like a first.

While the girls were swinging, I threw the ball for Buddy with our new Chuck-It. The old one finally gave out from sun damage and Caroline had been concerned for some time that we should get a new one. I told her to remind me on our next pet store trip, and we finally got a new one last week. Holly wasn't much for chasing the ball. She decided to chew on a dead bird instead, so I had the pleasure of dealing with that. Holly also likes to climb on the swingset, and the top of our sand table. She's still afraid of our water bowl so she's always looking for pooled rainwater.






Then the girls had fun in the playhouse and sand. Caroline made me a birthday cake with a cup of sand and stick. Then, she lined up a strange collection of sand filled cups in the sand table and told me she was "advertising." "Hmmm, interesting," I thought. As she continued talking about "advertising," I started to press her for what she meant. Then she started defining it in terms of a recent Handy Manny episode when the Hardware store was closed and Manny had to fix some lights. That's when I realized, she was "improvising." A very big vocabulary word for such a little girl.

Caroline also got in on the fun of throwing a ball for Buddy. He gets a little over excited and I'm afraid he'll knock her down waiting for the ball, one of these days. Oh well, I'm glad he has so much pep left in him. He's at least ten years old.