Rockin' the shades

My kitchen elf

Teagan usually falls apart around dinner prep time.  Piper too, for that matter.  It's just a simple matter of math that it takes two hands to put dinner on the table, and that leaves no hands left over to hold, calm, and otherwise attend to a needy child.  (After dinner, everything changes and you can't catch one of those buggers to save your life they're running away from you so fast!)

Anyway, my latest trick is to push a chair over to the counter and let Teagan be involved in the dinner preparations.  Mostly, she plays with things in the dish rack and asks for refills on her servings of "peaches" (peas).  Kid otherwise won't eat peas, but put her on a chair and put those peas in a bowl at counter height and suddenly they're magic in her mouth.

This whole arrangement has made dinner prep so much more manageable!  Except that Teagan has just started to experiment with some climbing (from the chair onto the counter, back down to the chair again, off the chair onto the floor with one hand ("Wah chiz mommy!").   She's impressively agile, but alas, gravity has a way of besting even the most adept of children in the end.  So her days on the chair by the counter may be numbered...  For today, though, we had an evening free of meltdowns!

Little monkeys

 Bike racks are the girls' new favorite jungle gyms :)

 

 

 

Piper Mac graduates!

On Friday, Piper graduated from preschool.   The theme was superhero.  She was very excited to receive her diploma :)

 

 

Piper and her preschool "besties".

Bad idea

An almost-two year old at Cherry Berry frozen yogurt shop.  With lots of sample cups and her own spoon.  What was mom thinking?  I can't remember.  It seemed like a good idea... until it didn't.

Feeding the ducks

Here in Minnesota we're soaking up every last bit of summer.  Which means evening and weekend outtings to all of our favorite outdoor space and places.  One of our favorites is the pavilion area behind the Maple Grove library, where they have giant musical instruments, plenty of things to climb on and ducks to feed.  Winter is so close - we can feel it approaching like a dreaded cold in your bones.

 

 

Teagan's first haircut

The girls had plenty of fun before the hair cutting started.

 

At first Teagan was a little nervous, but then she saw all the toys. 

 Piper was the statue of liberty, with her birthday party crown acting as a perfect replica.

In this one picture we have of the actual haircut, Teagan looks pretty calm.  She wasn't.  The stylist put her in the chair, she screamed, turned purple and we thought she was going to pass out.  Then I held her on my lap, and she screamed through the entire haircut.  When the stylist asked if she could put a ribbon in Teagan's hair at the end, Teagan said without hesitation a very emphatical "NO."  And that was the end of that.

Piper was pretty chill throughout her hair cutting experience and graciously accepted the offer of a ribbon. But she's an old pro.