Keeping busy

Friday night the girls were both acting out of sorts, so we decided a night out was in order. Certainly not to reward their crying and whining, but to hopefully be a distraction from whatever was wrong with them. We tried an Indian restaurant that we haven't been to before. The food was great, the girls were great; they both loved the mango lassi drinks and the chicken coconut korma. After dinner we walked down to Jungle Jim's, which was an interesting adventure. It wasn't clear how the place works, so we might have walked in without paying. Kennedy loved the climbing area and playing ski ball with daddy. Macy was excited to see all the big kids, rides and games. She wanted to walk everywhere, and refused to be picked up. A night out was just what we all needed!

Saturday we woke up early and jumped right into the housework. Kennedy loves to help me clean the bathrooms and wash the floors. She has her own spray bottle (of water) and I get her a pile of rags so that she can squirt, scrub, and wipe just like mom. Sometimes her puddles on the floor drive me crazy, or when she insists on cleaning an area that I've already finished, but I'm so glad that she's learning about taking care of her surroundings. Growing up I never really had any chores that I remember, and it was great, but I also think that it made me a very lax housekeeper. I'm trying to change that, but it's hard to break old habits.

We finally had a perfect sunny day, so we also spent some time working in the garden. This is our first year planting vegetables. We're hoping to harvest peppers, carrots, beets, squash, peas, pumpkin, cantaloupe, strawberries and some herbs. Macy ended up covered in dirt, and she was headed back for the newly watered patch when daddy squirted her with the hose. This time instead of getting the camera, I picked her up, stripped her down and headed right for the bath. Kennedy got very upset when she got sprayed with the hose. She kept telling Jake, "Daddy, I am not a flower!"

To end the weekend, we took a picnic lunch to the arboretum. The spring flowers and trees were so beautiful and fragrant, and it was fun to see the girls enjoying the children's garden. All the excitement sure tired them out because they both took nearly three hour naps.

That evening we had Sunday dinner at Grandpa Ray's house. After we finished eating, Jake crushed me in a game of ladder golf, 21-2, while Kennedy raced up and down the grassy hill playing monster with anyone she could get to chase her.

After all that fun, it took a while to get the girls to wind down before bed. But after reading a few chapters in the Disney princess storybook collection that Kennedy picked out from the library, they both gave in and fell fast asleep.