A birthday party

Mostly for this little guy:

But a little bit for her:

And a little bit for Ray:

A few others who were there:

Grandma Jean, sorry I'm so slow getting your picture up this time. I hope you're still checking.

Imagination

My girls are in a very imaginative stage just now. I love it! I never know who or what they might be. They trade identities sometimes. They also like to be animals: monkeys, horses, dogs, cats, rabbits, ducks, kangaroos, penguins. They also regularly take on the identities (or assign each other the identities) of their cousins and friends. When they are in character they do not like to be called the wrong name. For example, Cora tells me she is a monkey and a few minutes later I say, "Cora, will you help me?" She responds with, "I'm not Cora. I'm a monkey." Luckily for me, the monkey is usually quite willing to help. :)

I've also found that my identity changes regularly. Recently I have been: Uncle Roy, Uncle Craig, Ruby, Cora, Lil, Cody, Kristy, Kayla, and a penguin.

The penguin story is perhaps my favorite: one day, out of the blue, Cora jumped up and said, "Let's be penguins!"
I asked, "What do penguins do?"
She thought for a moment, then replied, "They HOP!"

I loved her enthusiasm for the subject so I showed her how penguins walk. Now she will say, "Bunnies hop. Penguins do this." (The links have video)

And, since no post is very exciting without a picture, here are the girls with bunny ears:Try as I might, I couldn't get Cora's to stand up, her hair is too long or too heavy.

The perfect "bench"

and they talked Grandpa into joining them:

A table just their size

Grandpa's lap isn't quite big enough

So they had to borrow Beth's.

Watering the lawn with Grandma

Notice the direction Ruby is pouring the water out of the bucket? Good thing she had boots on so she wouldn't get wet. :)

Going solo

Ruby was a little nervous at first, but she loved it after a few minutes:
Riding double: