We spent a low stress day at home today with the girls playing with their castle. It involved a lot of water, sand, and hard playing. I think the water went a long way to make the warm day bearable. They were soaked from head to toe by the time they came in. For the most part they played quietly in their own worlds. Any noise between them was generally a complaint that the other one took something they were playing with. It was a sweet way to spend the morning.

Shoes are definitely loved at our house! Julia cleaned up the shoes in the living room by grouping Emily’s shoes next to the baby doll’s shoes. Maybe the doll is a member of our family.

Some of the funny things about shoes at our house are that Julia gets very excited at the idea of wearing shoes. She has a distinct opinion of what shoes she wants to wear. She brings Mommy’s shoes to her all day long if they aren’t being worn. She escorts her Daddy to remove his shoes every day. I think it is her way of making him stay home after a day of him being away. And lastly, she loves to dress her doll with shoes.

Julia decided she didn’t want to eat blueberries when they were placed in front of her at the table. So one day, I had washed some and put them out to dry. I also put the girls’ step stool in front of the tray. Amazingly, Julia stood on that step stool and ate and ate and ate blueberries. Since that day, she will eat the blueberries put on her plate again. I guess it just took her trying them again on her terms to decide they are good.

Emily was a huge fan of the step-stool-blueberry-stealing game. She ate a meal’s worth of blueberries. I wonder why food is so much more desirable when it eaten on your own terms.

We seem to have started the month out with blueberries and we have now finished out the month with it too. Late morning, we made another trip to a blueberry farm to collect some sweet treats along with a fun playtime. The month of heat and rain has been good to the bushes and there were a lot to pick. Emily was selective of which blueberries she picked. They had to be a good blue, and generally, she wanted to find them exactly where I was picking them. Julia was also very selective to the ones she picked. They had to be small and almost white. I couldn’t get her to pick any other type. She was very intent on pulling the stem off and then putting them in her bucket. Luckily, she was slow about it. I’m presuming that she ate them too. Somehow when it was time to leave, both girls had empty buckets and mine was mostly full.

After about a half an hour into picking we were all dripping sweat and wearing the dew off the bushes. To our delight we were visited by some friends. What a treat! The girls all ran around the rows of berries yelling with the delight that comes with carefree play.

Emily expressed an interest in building a house in the living room with books. We tried a few different things and this is what we ended up with. We planned a door and window. Julia wanted to walk through the window and Emily closed the window and the door when they entered the house. They invited their stuffed animals for a picnic and consented to stop playing for a photo. The house remained up so that Daddy could see their creation. Emily’s only disappointment was that we couldn’t put a roof on the house.

We celebrated a little summer at a local splash pad and playground. Despite the heat, Emily and Julia seemed more interested in playing at the playground than getting wet. Emily did figure out how to make her pinwheel spin fast by putting it a stream of water. Julia liked climbing the stairs and sliding. The kids served a lot of food out of their little deli. During snack time Elena gave me an awesome smile.