Girls Week

Peter has been out of town this week so Susannah, Meadow and I have enjoyed some relaxing girl time.   Here are the highlights.......

I know this picture is blurry, but it is worth noting for three reasons......1.  We were eating out to say goodbye to a good friend who is moving to Chicago.   We miss you Emilia!    2.   Susannah was the only toddler there since everybody else had husbands to keep their kids, but she was so well behaved.  I was really proud of her.   3. This is still her favorite food.   She loves "rice and beans" and sometimes says, "I want rice and beans."  It cracks me up.

We spent some time at the park on the other side of the island and she was so serious about how she only wanted to slide down the pink slide.  

Probably because it matched her hat.   She also insisted that I slide down the other one, saying, "Mommy, green slide!"

We have spent some time in the backyard this week too......I throw the tennis ball to Meadow while she pushes Monkey in the swing.  

Her Mimi put her hair in pigtails when we were in Georgia the last time, so now if she wants pigtails, she says, "Mimi pigtails" when I am combing her hair in the morning.

The orange tree in our front yard is absolutely full of ripe oranges, so we spent some time this week gathering them.

Susannah was such a great little helper.  

This is the tool we used.......Peter found it somewhere in the yard or the garage and identified it as a fruit picking device.   It works really well.   And it turns out that orange picking is actually really fun.

Here is a shot of the tree from the sidewalk.   Can you tell how delighted I am by the orange picking?   I know it is strange, but it was just one of those moments when I thought, "How did I get here?  Am I really picking oranges in January with my 2 year old daughter on an island in Southern California?  So very different than what I expected for my life, but yet so absolutely perfect at the same time."

Of course, Meadow wanted in on the orange picking fun.   She really helped.   And by helped I mean chased the oranges around the yard, pretending they were tennis balls.

Good thing my most important helper was fully dedicated to her job!

In this picture she is saying, "This is the big one!"  

We had some friends over last night for dinner and I had to take a picture because they were all seated before any of us Moms, and it just cracked me up to think that this was Susannah's first dinner party as hostess.   She was really gracious all night with the exception of her refusal to share her stuffed penguin towards the end of the evening.   ;)

The PBS show-of-the-week at the Mallory house has been "Thomas the Train."   She loves it, especially the songs.   She dances and claps the entire time.

She is also really into pockets these days, so this little jumper was a hit this morning.  

 

 And that was our week.  Hope your's was equally thrilling.   (Although I don't know if anything could top the orange picking.)   As most of you know, I'm having surgery to correct my scoliosis on February 12.   The recovery promises to be pretty intense, so all prayers are greatly appreciated!   Love you all!