embrace the camera {play dates}

No, life is not all puppies and rainbows.  But we do keep our mornings busy which keeps me more or less sane.  We have Jenn and JT of course, but thanks to an attempt at being part of a mommy group, we also met a wonderful nanny who cares for an adorable set of twins just a couple months older than Ryann.  We are the same age and our personalities seem to mesh pretty well :o).  I am so thankful for Sarah.  Without her I know we would not get out of the house near as much.  This week we got together twice and had lots of fun.

On Monday, along with Jenn and JT and another mommy/son pair (boys, all boys, all the time.  sorry Ryann!) we made a trip to the children's farm.  But instead of wandering around all the stinky pigs and goats, we went on a little horse drawn wagon ride to their 'pumpkin hollow'.  The first thing we found?  A giant trough or something full of corn.  I think Ryann would have stayed there forever.  She loves to scoop and pour things.

Another hit was of course the giant slide.  Unfortunately you had to climb quite the tower of hay bales to get to the top, which equaled me hauling toddlers up there while Sarah was at the bottom to catch and keep everyone wrangled in one area.  Ryann would have done that a million times too, if I wasn't already sweating my butt off after like the first six trips.  Oh Kansas weather, it was like 80 degrees on Monday, 50 something yesterday.

not interested in taking pictures with me, obviously

Play date number two of the week was yesterday, and we headed over to the boys' house to paint our little pumpkins!  I wasn't sure what Ryann would really do.  The only painting she has done was at the children's discovery center.  The last time I tried to get her to paint with her hands was father's day, and she acted like I was torturing her.  But this time?  She absolutely loved it.  She was rubbing her hands together pretending she was washing them (ironic, no?), smearing paint all over her pumpkin and just having a great time.  She sat there happily painting after both boys had moved onto other activities.

ryann painting her hands instead of the pumpkin, of course.

my focus is way off, but can you see her little smile?  so happy.

she wanted me to come paint

Thanks Sarah, our play dates really are the highlight of some of our days!