For the most of November, we have had really beautiful weather. Lots of warm sunny days and the girls spent a lot of time out in the backyard. These first pictures are from a lovely Saturday afternoon, I had just returned home to see Cora & Olivia playing in the yard with Daddy. They were gathering herbs to make bouquets and it was a magical sight, the sun was hitting them in just such a way to make them glow. Of course by the time I hurried in to get my camera, I had lost that first image, but I captured a few others. The girls had scarfs tied around their waists, or tucked in their shorts in order to create tails. Cora had "Taggly" tied onto hers, and they chased each other all over the yard, giggling and falling down. They have so much fun running around the yard, playing in the playhouse, swinging, pretending, foraging in the garden, etc. I am very thankful for the space we have outside and for all the wonderfully fun areas that have been created around the yard, mostly by Andrew.
This was another sunny autumn weekend day when the girls wanted to play in the water, it was quite warm out, although Andrew made sure to add some nice warm water to the little pool. In the last two pictures Cora & Olivia are playing their "growing flower" game. I'm not sure exactly how it started, it seems to me that Olivia came up with it, it's something they have been playing for a few months now, every now and then. One of them starts out as the flower, here it's Olivia, crouching down very low. Cora then waters the flower with her watering can, although usually when they play they just pretend - they don't usually have real water. As the flower is watered it grows up to a standing position. I wrote down once part of the conversation they had when they were playing. Oct 13: Olivia says, "My flower die," very sadly, as Cora hid down low beneath the foot rest of a recliner. "Water, water, water," says Olivia while pretending to water Cora. Cora slowly rises up between the gap in the recliner until she is standing up with her arms out. Olivia gives her a big hug and smiles then says, "Now me do!" On this particular occasion, they were taking turns dying, then coming back to life when watered. Sometimes Daddy had to do the watering.
The girls (and Daddy) like to try to climb trees. There are a few trees in the yard that the girls can practice on by themselves, they have low enough branches that they can get up themselves. And usually they can get down by themselves too. This poor, old, sad walnut tree is decaying and has been mostly cut down by now, however it is also an attachment for the hammock so the trunk is still in place. Daddy likes to lift the girls up into the tree so they can have a look around.
Cora & Olivia both like to swing. We have the play structure now and they can both swing at the same time since there are three swings. However their first swing in the yard is suspended from a thick rope tied high up in a walnut tree. It's a lot of fun because you can really swing far and high and over a great deal of area. We had raked up some leaves under the swing and the girls took turns swinging into the pile of leaves, scattering them around. Of course it's more fun when you're the one doing the swinging and it can be hard to wait for your turn, so Daddy rigged up the swing so that a second swing could be attached at the same time. They had so much fun, swinging and twirling around, Cora was even scooping leaves into her butterfly net while swinging (and wearing her Griffindor wizard's robe - just like Harry Potter or Hermione).Both Cora & Olivia love to pretend. It's so much fun now that Olivia is talking more and participating more in Cora's play. I just love it when they're off playing together, in their own little world. It's really amazing how seriously they take their pretend play. Recently, Andrew observed an occasion in which a pretend object was taken away from Olivia by Cora. Olivia was screaming and trying to take it back. Andrew tried to give her another pretend object instead, but Olivia refused to take it insisting that Cora had taken it. The new pretend object that Daddy made was no good because she knew Cora had the "real" one!
