Keep On Smilin'

Below you see Claire, Chloe, and Chris early on Monday morning a couple of weeks ago. Monday is our normal day to help with childcare and since that is a school day for the girls I help them get ready for school. Both Claire and Chloe have started (actually some time back) to be quite particular about how they wear their hair. On this particular morning they both wanted braids...not my best skill...and both were happy after two re-dos on each of them. By the time we took this picture however, both looked as if they had slept in their braids. :)

A few days later when we came for a few hours Claire immediately told Papa she had a story for him. That is a switch because usually it is Papa telling the kids stories about Wyatt Earp and Josey Wales. He occasionally throws in a Peter Rabbit one too, but not often enough for me!  Claire has a very active and descriptive imagination and the story went on and on.



One of the other activities of the day was the use of my camera. Occasionally the girls have asked to take pictures with my camera and I have discouraged it, but on this morning I decided to let them have a go at it.

The following pictures are some that either Claire or Chloe shot and actually they did a pretty good job.

On that particular day, Claire and Chloe were invited to a birthday party. Here they are ready for some fun and a first time visit to a bowling alley. They reported later that they were both good bowlers and I think their high scores were 48!

Since Claire and Chloe were going to be gone and busy we took Chris home with us to spend the night. We had a great time and he did very well. He didn't seem the least bit concerned about anything after we left their driveway. Getting in the car he found it a little hard to say good-bye to Daddy but he recovered very fast. Sadly, I didn't get many pictures during his stay...guess we were just too busy playing!

Below you see another picture taken by Chloe. It was last Monday morning and I couldn't quite make Claire's hair like she wanted it. Thank goodness Paula arrived home from work just in time to rescue me and fix it perfectly. Chloe took the opportunity to record the moment. Incidentally, if I had worked all night as Paula just had done, I certainly wouldn't look this good. Paula is not only a beautiful person inside, but outside, as well, as evidenced here. Her patients are very fortunate to have her as their night nurse!

Yesterday we decided to take the children to a local parade in their town. When we arrived, Claire had styled her own hair. What a beautiful job she did. I was able to convince her to take a few bows out before we left for the parade, and she ended up wearing only two, one on each side.

Here are the kids with Papa waiting for the parade to start and a picture of Chris that shows off his new haircut.

Chris has started pre-school one day per week now. The reports are that he really enjoys himself and has to only be occasionally reminded that Mommy will be back in a while. Claire and Chloe, although not in his class, see him on the playground and report that they hug him and talk to him sometimes. One of the books that we read several times this week is called, Llama Llama Misses Mama. Chris is very funny when we read it. When Mama Llama starts to leave baby Llama, Chris wrinkles up his face like he is crying. Later in the book when Mama returns, he shoots his arms into the air and shouts "hurray"!!! It is lots of fun to read to him.

Goodbye April and hello May--the time is flying by!! Enjoy each day --- my current goals include to live in the moment each day and not to think ahead so much. Believe me, it doesn't come naturally to me, I tend to be solving problems way before they even arrive, but I am working on it!