It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Summer

There've been signs summer is coming, aside from (and thanks in part to!) the slightly warmer weather.


Ice cream!


Picnics with neighbors


Watermelon appearing in the stores (and at more play dates)


A trip to the garden store


...where we got all the necessary materials for this year's fairy garden.



And, most tellingly, Sabine's last day of Kindergarten. Fortunately we had some good friends visiting from New Mexico, and E was sweet enough to walk Sabine to the bus stop with Aspen.






Sabine with her buds at school

And waiting for the bus to drop Sabine off!







And celebratory frozen yogurt, for the beginning of summer break!

Aspen and the Goats

Farm is becoming part of our routine...happily! We all love it there. Aspen had a picturesque day there the other day, so bear with me for a few more cute pictures.



























And here is a picture of Aspen with HER goat, along with her new rocking chair. A belated birthday present from Grandmom and Grandpa that they brought back from their trip to the east coast. It was mommy's rocking chair when she was little, and Grandpa's rocking chair when HE was little, and Great-Grandpa's chair when HE was little!







Both Sabine and Aspen have already gotten a lot of mileage out of it. Aspen has always loved rocking chairs, so it seemed right that she should be the next owner. But she and Sabine share it beautifully, and both love it.

Here's a picture of Sabine in May of 2011, in the same chair (in Virginia!) back when she was even younger than Aspen is now:

27 Months

Aspen is officially 27 months old.

She regularly forms 8+ word sentences, and has a lot to say. She likes to name things, dolls, other toys, other kids' toys, even random boxes. Her two favorite names are Sadie (a reference to a neighbor's dog, whom Aspen just adores) and Tadia, pronounced tay-dee-uh, which we have no idea where it came from, but it consistently gets used. She can't quite pronouce Ys yet, so her morning breakfast is "OH-gurt, please! With wa-nala!" (granola.)

The Twos are coming more into play, she gets frustrated easily, and lets us know it. But she is still a happy kid overall, especially when she's with her big sister. Aspen loves monkeys (we've checked out multiple monkey books from the library many times, and they are favorite books to read on the potty) and dogs. She loves animals in general, but seems to be particularly fond of dogs.

Aspen helped me take the cats to the vet the other day, and was overjoyed when the vet got her her own stethoscope to use while we were there. (He was impressed that she recognized what it was.) And she dutifully listened to Sugar and also anything else she could get her stethoscope on in the room.







Aspen's starting to sing more, favorite songs include "Hush Little Baby" (especially if it's sung "Sabine is going to buy you a..."), "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star," and "Little Red Hen" from Sabine's school play.

Sabine, meanwhile, is busy winding up the school year. She and I joined some friends for high tea at the Brown Palace, as a Mother's Day present.



We had an excellent time, the girls even explored the hotel a bit on their own while the moms got to linger over tea. Everyone enjoyed that!





And we've had plenty of play dates, per usual.



With adult friends, too!

Farm 2.0

The next set of farmers is coming up! The farm where Sabine used to go once a week has still not been able to re-start their childcare programs, including summer camp, but they do still have public visiting hours. So we invited some friends, loaded the younger girls up in the car while the bigger kids were at school


(riding in a friend's van was a pretty awesome adventure in and of itself!)

and took off for the farm. Aspen really loves animals, and just about melted in joy when she saw the goats and pig. She raced over to give them some love as soon as we let her out of the car.





There were tractors to climb on (and drive "to town," as Aspen said)





and bulldozers



and tree houses



and, most importantly, more animals. Especially more goats that she could feed!


(and BOOP on the nose.)





and hay bales to climb on




(mommy and her friend had a good time, too!)

We tried to do a quick picnic lunch



but it was hard to focus on eating when there were so many other excellent things to be doing.



The trip was such a success that we actually headed back the next week!


The whole scene was positively bucolic.











Playing in the airplane.







But the very best part about this visit was the horse ride! Aspen got on the horse Belle for the first time, and LOVED it. She has been talking about it ever since. Don't let her expression in the first picture fool you, she had a blast and was exclaiming about being on the horse, and being a big girl the whole time.







The girls put on some funny "hats" on the way home. (Wet wipes are so versatile...and cool!)