Grounder at the Playground

Early this morning, Eric left home for a canoe trip he had planned with his buddies at a nearby river. My beautiful baby girl must have still been exhausted from the previous night's parties and slept in until after 8:30 ! Mind you, we're talking about my typical 7 a.m. baby alarm. I was beat too and so it was nice to get some extra sleep.

We finally got ourselves together and let our girls' day begin. I had been meaning to allow Elaina to create some artwork for some time now and today was the day. I sat her on my lap at the table and with three colorful markers, she began her very first masterpiece. It was stunning ! Since it is her first work of art, you can bet that I'll be framing it. These are the things I have lived for !

Soon after, our neighbor girl, Elizabeth stopped down with her school fundraiser and decided to accompany Elaina and myself to the playground. Today was a beautiful day to take advantage of being outdoors. The weather was nothing short of perfect. The leaves are changing colors and the air was warm with a subtle breeze. The temperature hovered around 80 most of the day ! With such wonderful weather, we decided to hit two playgrounds - the park and that of the local elementary school.

Elizabeth, who is 10, loved playing with Elaina and was a great help as Elaina took about 15 trips down the slide. I hoisted her up to Elizabeth who led her down the slide time after time. By the second playground and one stone in her mouth later, Elaina met her demise when she wasn't paying attention and fell to the ground and bit her bottom lip. She cried plenty and the bleeding stopped fairly quickly. What a little trooper.

Soon we headed for home where Elizabeth continued to play with Elaina for about 30 minutes while I chased around the house doing laundry, putting away clothes and just some general cleaning as fast as I could. Elizabeth was an enormous help and we both enjoyed her company. Elaina even gave her a kiss before she left ! So sweet !

The rest of our evening we spent reading books and playing. What an enjoyable day with my sweet girl !







Elaina loves her "Fridge Phonics" - just like her cousin Colin !