Wrapping Up the Week of April 26

We had a fun week of playing with dogs and friends :)

Our neighbor had asked us to let their puppy out while they were at work so much to the girls' excitement we "had" to go over to their house and play with the puppy. It was amazing how much faster and more "awake" she was, just from a few days earlier. It was great exercise for the girls to run around with her :)

On Wednesday we went to play at a friend's house. The weather was GORGEOUS! Not too hot, but warm enough, in the sun, for water play. Little Bit had a BLAST playing on the slip'n slide with her friends! We don't have an outside water faucet at our current house, and she was still pretty little when we moved, so she didn't remember the fun of a slip n' slide.

Meanwhile Ashlyn curled up on the garage floor (which she assured me was VERY comfortable . . . cool and smooth and hard, which are apparently all positive attributes) with our friends' 13+ year old Golden Retriever, and happily petted her and snuggled with her most of the afternoon. Needless to say, when Ashlyn DID get up and go anywhere, Sadie was right by her side, which she loved.  Ashlyn's been researching Golden Retrievers ever since, despite my frequent reminders that (a) it doesn't make sense for us to get a dog when we travel so much and (b) our house is MUCH too small for such a big dog even if we COULD get a dog.

When the younger kids weren't playing in the water, Lexie and S (7 yr old) had great fun playing with their other dog, a 1 year old miniature Australian Shepherd. She loves to track S, so Lexie would keep her on a leash while S hid, then Lexie and the dog would "track" him.  Wonderfully fun day!

After leaving their house, we grabbed a quick supper and headed to another friend's house for Bible study, where the kids all wrote/directed/practiced a play on Esther, that they performed for us at the end.

Thursday was another gorgeous day, so in addition to music lessons and errands, we spent some time at the playground.

Friday was a rather hectic day of getting things done at home after all our playing, followed by going to our friends' homeschool co-op spring program that evening.

Sabbath morning the girls and I loaded into the car and headed to my parents' house. After lunch we all headed to my friend V's dad's house. V and her 3 kids had come up to her dad's house for the weekend to visit. AND this weekend was "alumni weekend" for the high school we both attended. While I didn't make it to alumni weekend itself, V's dad lives within walking distance of the school, so various friends stopped by throughout the afternoon. I was especially excited to get to see my friend J, who now lives in Australia! I'm pretty sure the last time we were together was at her sister's wedding when Lexie and Ashlyn were 18 months old! Sooooo fun to catch up! And it honestly didn't feel like it could possibly have been 20+ years since we all used to gather at V's house because she lived so close to school and her parents were always glad to have us!

V used to live near my parents, and her kids and mine always had great fun when we'd get together, but last year they moved to North Carolina and this was the first time we've managed to coordinate visits to our respective parents and get together. The kids took a little bit to warm up to each other but before long they were all having a blast as always. And, to round out our "doggy week", Ashlyn became fast friends with V's dad's dog, Buddy :)