Julia eagerly volunteered to help Mama snap green beans. She also stuck with it longer than expected. On our first round, Mama took care of the ends and Julia just snapped them into smaller pieces. This was not enough on the second batch though. She wanted to try her hand at the whole process. She definitely wore out faster having to do all the steps, but it was awesome that she was so eager to help her Mama. The green beans are more fun to eat later if you pitch in to help in the process.

We went to listen to Ms. Caryn read for Storytime. The girls enjoyed exploring the kids book section and listening to Ms. Caryn’s book too. After storytime we enjoyed lunch at Market Square. We got on the road for home before the rain moved in. We hope to make it at least once a month for this fun time.

Julia has loved going to school twice a week with her special friend. It is easier to leave Mama when your friend is there playing with play-doh already. Our warm sunny days have made playing at the playground a lot of fun too.

M’s fashion shot!

Julia has missed having Emily around to play with. Still, Julia is great at playing by herself and is also enjoying having time with Mama to herself. While much of our time isn’t spent doing "exciting" things, we try to have fun in just the normal moments of life. As an exercise Mama has tried to take random photos of the things we do. Here is a selection of our life.

Someone blew the bubble and then caught it back. It looks like her fancy magnifying glass.

Some of our morning walks are on chilly mornings. To stay warm Julia prefers blankets to a coat.

Who can pass a random bike rack without having to play with it before moving on?

Coloring anywhere is fun, but the front porch is as good as anyplace.

When we walk Julia has great smiles to share with others. Her favorite song to sing while we walk is "twinkle, twinkle, little star".

Just loving and playing with our toys are fun things to do too.

We are on-the-go so long some days that we just give out in the car. This day was really funny because five minutes before this photo was taken, Julia had just informed Mama that she was not tired.

Rainy days are great days to jump in random puddles. This one was outside of the preschool.

A week can’t go by without some train building. This day she made the Diego house into the train station. The trains are lined up on the porch waiting for their turn on the track.

Never underestimate the fun of helping Mama shop at the super-warehouse store. Yes, the cheese puffs are almost as big as she was. And yes, her Mama bought it because she was so darn cute.

Driving the grocery car is always a bonus. She informed me that she was Milli driving her UmiCar. If you don’t know the reference you have not been watching Team Umizoomi like we do.

There is always the fun of an after-lunch slide to go down.

Julia doesn’t always stroller on our walk. Although it is not so strenuous for Mama, little girls have to stretch their legs too.

Weekends have been different since school started. It is the time the girls are together and some Mama/Emily time that we were used to. There is nothing better than spending the morning together not necessarily doing much, but just hanging out.

Mama and Julia getting some snuggling in!

Side-by-side sister coloring – never to be under appreciated.

If there is a morning person at our house it is Julia, but everyone else seems to be a bit slow getting going in the morning. We are grateful that Julia gets up and gets her routine completed and breakfast eaten without any complaint and minimal trouble.

Emily is not inclined to get up and get busy in the morning. The correlation between not wanting to fall asleep at bedtime and morning tiredness hasn’t sunk in for her yet. Not sure if it has for her Mama either. To help with each morning, we have two routines in place. One is pre-selecting clothes for the week and labeling each outfit. Maybe, we will learn how to spell the days of the week while we’re at it. The second routine is nifty routine cards Mama found online. They seem to work well to remind the girls what is expected without so much interaction from Mama. While all the morning excitement is going on Mama is making breakfast and lunch. As long as the girls have gotten their responsibilities done on time they get a few minutes of play and TV time before going to school.