Almost every day when the boys get off the bus they try to sneak up on me, they do not understand that the bus is LOUD and that I know when it is here, so I enjoy watching them crawling up the driveway thinking that I won't see them out the window, or walking the long way next to the neighbors yard and through some bushes to get to the back door.   Today I crouched down by the back door and jumped out and scared Eti so bad I gave him a stomach ache and then we laughed and laughed.

Chloe and I have been having the most wonderful days together, after a VERY busy summer, we are enjoying slow days together.   The other day she finished one of my sentences and she finished it with exactly what I was going to say!  There are some things I did not know would  happen when I became a mother, little things that leave me breathless with joy. 

  We paint our nails and color and draw, and lately she has been so interested in the paper dolls I made her.  I cut clothes out of catalogs and magazines all the same general size and then cut out pictures of people for her to lay the clothes on top of.  She can't stand the dolls up, but at five years old, just laying new outfits out can entertain her all afternoon.  There are mittens, hats and purses... 

Today Eti asked me, "Mom if I work really hard at it, do you think I could teach you to be kid again? We can start with the monkey bars"  It feels like my children are already teaching me.

The day after the wedding we all went to the Jamestown Festival Park, the first location was a recreated Native American village.  The picture above on the left is a basket filled with various crafts and tools, we could pick up and touch anything we wanted to, on the right is a large mortar and pestle, the wooden mortar came up to my waist and reminded me of the ones I saw in Africa.

Eti seeing what it feels like to sleep on animal skins.

A very cool wooden tray and pottery I returned to more than once.

I have no clue,  wreaths? There were people in costume who would have answered for me, but they were so passionate I knew they could not give me a Twitter sized answer and the boys were eager to get to the ships.  So I took a picture and am hoping to do some research.

I had not slept for more than a few hours for three nights in a row, so I was dragging by the time I reached the boats.   It was a hot hot day and the sun was hurting my eyes, it felt like everyone was walking too fast and I couldn't keep up.   I was tired and dizzy to the point of distraction, so I went and sat in the shade, and thought hard (concentrated emphathy) about what it must be like to be elderly and want so badly to be with people you love but not be able to because of physical limitations.  Soon other women came and sat next to me, with canes and walkers and I had to smile, totally surrounded by women who looked to be in their eighties.  I have been thinking lately that I am in the best health RIGHT NOW, I am young and surrounded by my kids. 

 Yesterday I saw a little girl playing in her backyard, I was driving past so it was a fast scene, but I saw that she had a big ball under her shirt, half of it was sticking out, and she was waddling around holding her stomach and her back the way pregnant women do. She had dolls and toys around her.  It immediately brought back to my mind the  hours/days/weeks of my childhood that I spent dreaming of what I have right now!   I am grateful for being able to live a little girls dream and at the same time I respect and want to understand the next stage as well. 

 This trip was all for Jeff, I wanted to see him enjoy it, to hear him talk about what he was seeing, and for him to see me enjoying it as well.  I was so grateful when God gave me a second wind.

Looking down the top deck, down to the lower deck.

Etienne

This photo cracks me up because it is the cliche vacation picture, "Kids go stand next to that boat and wave" but the cool thing is that both Steve and I were on the sidewalk and they went back in the big boat alone and found the deck alone, they are getting SO big!