The playground

Some from the playground last night. It was late and overcast, so the lighting is kind of blah. The kids had fun and let me shoot them, so it was a winning night for me!

Charlotte wears pajamas pretty much all the time now. At least here they are
matching tops and bottoms.

The slides

Both girls walk up and down all the slides effortlessly. They love it. They play games together and talk to each other while they climb around. It is cute to watch. Just some snaps.

Grace is calling over to Charlotte as she climbs up and Charlotte goes down.




I don't love it when they both go up the same one like this, but seriously they hardly ever slip.


Charlotte generally directs the games and tells Grace what to do.


Okaaaay.

The game

The big game that Charlotte invented is to have one of them wait at the bottom and the other one stand at the top of the slide. Charlotte calls out to Grace "Gracie! Are you okay? Are you okay, Grace? I'll come down and help you! I'll rescue you, Grace!" etc., etc., etc. You get the idea. Then, she slides down. And then... wait for it...they hug! And I forget all the fighting and whining and bickering and crying and all is right with the world. They switch roles, too. Charlotte sits a tthe bottom and Grace goes to the top and yells "Car? Okay? Okay, Car?" It is very cute.

Gracie at the top, getting ready to slide down.


The hug. Awwww!


Charlotte's turn.



Be still my heart.

Good Moods

Everybody (including mama) was in a good mood last night and we actually had fun playing and taking pictures. Charlotte said to me, when she saw the camera come out on the playground "'Esterday you was taking pictures of me, but I busy and I said 'NO!'. Now, I not busy. You can take pictures of me now." Gracie usually immeadiately stops talking to and looking at me when I try to photograph her, but last night in the yard she didn't seem to mind the camera and kept chattering away to me while I shot her. There are lots that I hope to be able to work on and post soon.

Here are the first two of Gracie that I liked. Princess, indeed.

Gracie

Since she refuses to look at me when I have the camera out, at least I can get nice shots of her little pigtails. Ignore the dirt in her hair. The kid insists on dumping sand over her head at daycare. It is almost impossible to rinse it all out!



Here she and Charlotte are eating blueberries outside on the deck. I love this one becuase it catches something Grace does alot. She sings a little song softly to herself and sways her head and shoulders to the beat. She sometimes does little arm motions, too. We don't know the words, or if she is singing an actual song or making it up as she goes along, but it is actually quite melodic.



Here, she overcomes her aversion to looking at the camera to flash me an impish smile. SHe is copying Charlotte who was hanging the spoon on her nose.

Behind

I am just back home and behind on editing family pictures, but here are two new ones that I liked. One of Charlotte in her 4th of July dress.



One that I really like of the two of them watching tv. I thought they were so cute sitting together at the one end of the couch.

Hidden Treasures

I was fooling around and looked into a folder of unedited RAW files in an archived corner of my hard drive. Without boring you with the details of my workflow, if an entire card of pictures never gets at least one image edited, I rarely open the folder ever again. So, I kind of enjoyed happening upon these. They aren't the greatest pics, but look at those little baby faces! These are from the end of November, 2005.

I do remember desperately trying for a shot of them together in their little matching outfits.


Look at that big round face.


Gracie in her Thanksgiving dress. She sat like this, supporting herself with both arms, for awhile as I remember.


Not technicaly perfect, but still awfully cute.

Haircut

Charlotte got her hair cut this morning. She kind of cut off all the curls, so it will be intereting to see if they come back.

Charlotte had our whole day planned early this morning. She laid it all out for me. First, we were going to the haircut store. She would get her hair cut then play with the toys. Next, we would go to the toy store. We would buy Play-Doh. And play with the toys. Then, we would go to the "restaurant with the playground", (also known as McDonalds). There, we would have lunch. And play on the playground. Got it? Got it.

After the haircut, Grace seemed to be getting hungry and we were just up the street from McDonalds, so I suggested we could go eat first and then go to the toy store on the way home. Er, no. That was not the plan. Apparently I didn't understand the plan fully. She patiently ran it by me again.

She's just a wee bit bossy these days.

Here is the new haircut. I think it's kicky :)