The Unclaimed Treasures come to call

The second half of last week saw the last of our practicing for the wedding, playing at the wedding, enjoying lots of visiting hours with Chloe and Lydia, as well as a day spent bathroom-shopping (picking up some of the last things we need for the reno job) and a sister-shopping-stop at Reitmans and church together Sunday morning. Gettin' in a few bounces while we practiced.
Working on an alphabet puzzle at the big table.
Recently I've been finding Hope up in the rocking chair with a book tucked into her lap, quietly studying the pictures and words. This particular morning she wanted Joy to be up there with her. As you can see, Joy wanted more than just the book Hopey gave her...
Good thing precious Hope is a patient child!
Chloe and Lydia arrived late Thursday night, and Friday morning it was PLAYtime with Auntie!!!
I know, I know... what a shot to post, but this was just how they were playing... till Auntie looked down and rescued Joy from Hope's neck-hug!
There - that's better. :o)
After breakfast, Auntie Chloe and Hope set up a pretend picnic, which delighted Hope. :o)
"Uhmmmm... Auntie Chloe, can we play a different song now?"
Forget the playing... try dancing!
"Up, up, and away......!"
Notice Hopey got right in there too - on top of dear Chloe!
Ahh yes, Mommy's shoes.
I didn't think she'd be able to balance enough to walk in them with the little heels they have, but I thought wrong. :o)
...always watching Hope...
...or me... :o)
Lydia was keeping an eye on Joy who was sitting on the kitchen table while I got breakfast ready Saturday morning, but while Lyddie looked away Joy reached into the fruit basket and started chewing on a plum. :o) Joy enjoyed it for a while and then I ate the remains.
After a day of bathroom hardware shopping and some clothes shopping too, we came back and got the girls bathed and got a bunch of haircuts done. After supper Hopey enjoyed opening a present Auntie Chloe had brought.
Yes - that is that it looks like - a John Deere dress and pinafore...
Made with love by Auntie Chloe...
...and one for Joy too. :o)
Just us. :o)
Where's Joy?
There she is!
And here she comes....
Sunday afternoon smiles. After lunch and some visiting and a game of Bohnanza out on the deck, Chloe and Lydia had to go home. Hopey was rather sad, but such it is when you love someone.
Little miss active...
"Oh - this makes an interesting noise - listen Mom...{bang, bang, bang!}"
Don't ask me what they were looking at, but it must have been something... :o)
And this is called, "try to get a picture of the girls in their purple dresses..." which turned into "Hopey wants to give Joy a hug..." never-minding Joy's position at all!
We retreated to the coolness of the basement and relaxed while watching the girls play.
Joy's energy amazes us!

She saw Hope playing with the phone earlier, and as soon as Hope set it down in Joy's line of sight and wandered off to something else, Joy bee-lined it for the phone and plopped herself down to play with it. :o) So precious to see how she likes to be just like Hope. :o)

A new week

Monday morning dawned clear and sunny, and the forecast was for warm weather, so we brought out the new sundresses from Grandma and enjoyed a summery day!I wanted to get Hope's hair off her neck, so I tried a full twist in it.
It did up nicely, though the front stuff fell down with tossing and playing later.
Butterflies to finish it off... that's Hopey's favourite part.
Banging around some Play Dough containers while Hope & I played on the little table. :o)
Mondays are laundry days in our house. I mover the little FP piano into the laundry room because both the girls like it. Joy was playing on it by herself, till Hope came.
So... with big sister taking charge of the keyboard, Joy went off for other adventures.
The nearby baby bathtub looked interesting...
....and where Joy is, there Hopey will soon be. :o)
Little squirt pulling herself up...
Like the tongue? She must have been concentrating.
An attempt at getting them both to smile at me...
Yes, she is as much of a character as she looks.
...On both feet...
Then I sat her down and they started singing...
...and they kept on singing while Hope tried in vain to keep Joy from pulling herself up again.
Monday evening we had some friends over, and it was neat to see how both the girls interacted with baby Micah. (2 mon old)
Val brought chocolate pudding for dessert, so Hopey had her first taste of pudding that night. :o) She rather liked it, despite the serious expression in this particular picture.
Hope thought Micah should have some blocks since she and Joy were having fun playing with them, but when he didn't seem interested she gave up the quest and took to entertaining herself in his carseat instead. :o)
This little creature was on our back door the next morning.
When I showed her the pictures, Hope said "green butterfly!"
Well... sorta a butterfly... but not really... :o)
Speaking of green...
We had another grand thunderstorm on Tuesday evening, and the girls heard it happen while I was making supper and they were playing. I told Hopey it was like Noah's Ark when God made it thunder and rain. This play arragement was Hope's idea - the bathtub... I threw in the blocks and Joy and we had a great concoction of fun!
And then Hopey had to come have supper with Daddy and I, so Joy was left to play on her own... didn't last very long. :o)
The other night Josh hung a picture in the nursery, and Hope watched. So... guess what I found her doing ... "Hopey hanging picture, yeah."
Thought this was cute - Joy was really studying that invitation with Josh!