Fun in the Sun

The weather is warm and gloriously sunny today, putting all of us Rowes in a cheerful mood. So cheerful, in fact, that the kids didn't even give me a hard time about getting dressed this morning, especially since they were excited to get to wear short sleeved shirts today. Julia has generally been good about getting dressed as long as she was the one to pick out her outfit, which, as I mentioned, she is now laying out by the week-load. Madeleine is so averse to getting dressed that every morning the first thing she says to me as I get her out of her crib is, "Mommy, I don't think I need to wear my outfit." All she wants to wear are her Dora jammies. Even if I try to give her some choice in which outfit she wears, it's Dora jammies or bust.

ME: Madeleine, what clothes would you like to wear today?
MADELEINE: Um, some Dora jammies.

Last time we had a baby-sitter here for the evening, Madeleine had a hysterical melt-down sobbing fit because I had left out her cupcake jammies for the sitter rather than her Dora jammies. I will never make that mistake again.

At any rate, the girls have been happily sporting their tee-shirts today, and Julia even opted for flip-flops when we went outside to play. We started off in the backyard, where the kids engaged in various activities such as digging in the sandbox, kicking the ball around, going down the slide, and running around in circles flapping their arms singing made-up songs loudly. Julia, at one point, in her running and singing exuberance, tripped over something in the grass mid arm-flap and was literally airborne, landing with a face plant a foot or so from where she'd stumbled. Luckily, not even the fall could deter her happy mood, and she was quickly back to arm flapping, running and singing.


Madeleine on the slide

After some quality backyard time, we moved into the driveway for an intense, high-stakes game of hopscotch. Madeleine loved getting to throw the rock, despite the fact that she didn't really get the point of the rock throw, at least to start. She was so interested in getting to toss it that she didn't have her competitive edge in play. Instead of trying to score a high number, she was more interested in chucking the rock off to various points of the driveway, or sometimes even onto the lawn. Luckily, Julia was right there to correct her sister ANYTIME Madeleine strayed from the rules of the game. Once Madeleine got the hang of how hopscotch works, she was actually pretty good at throwing the rock, and she threw overhand, no less. Unfortunately, she was not quite as good at interpreting her results.

MADELEINE: It's my turn to throw the rock! (tossing the rock to the 4.) TEN, Mom!
JULIA: No, no, Madeleine, that's FOUR.
MADELEINE: (Stumble-hopping all the way to the end of the hopscotch board)
JULIA: Madeleine, you don't have to hop the whole way across! You just stop at the FOUR.

A few minutes later...

MADELEINE: It's my turn to throw the rock! (tossing it to the 10.) SIX, Mom!
JULIA: Madeleine, you got TEN.

At one point, Julia decided to color the rock with chalk, which I thought was a brilliant idea. That way, whenever Madeleine threw it into the grass, it would be easier to find.

JULIA: Mama, do you know why I decided to color the rock?
ME: Yeah, so that it would be easier to see.
JULIA: No, no, because I wanted to make it look MORE BEAUTIFUL.

Oh. Duh. Why didn't I think of that?

When we got back inside after a good hour plus of fun in the sun, Madeleine declared joyously, "Mommy, I had so much fun playing THE NUMBERS!"

Interesting. Seeing as "hopscotcher" is her go-to word, one would think she could handily supply it here, and actually use it (almost) correctly, but... nope.

Some pictures of the girls having so much fun playing the numbers:






Wishing all you readers sunny weather as well, wherever you may be!