A Mobile, a Moon and Push Ups

Chloe was excited to take her mobile into school that she made after reading a Junie B. Jones book.

She worked hard at drawing the different characters, writing their names and then writing out parts of the plot to hang on her mobile.

Owen wanted to get in on the early morning pictures, if only to try to sneak in some bunny ears.  But I snapped a photo before he got them up behind Chloe.  Momma is too fast for this boy!  Sometimes.

The moon was still out before we left for school.

In the afternoon, Chloe had tennis lessons.

Thought she looked pretty cute wearing her purple and black dress with Owen's black tennis shoes.

She didn't make all the hits and had to do push ups at the back of the line.

Curly Girl

She was loving how curly her hair was this morning after we took out all the twisties!!!

Hiking and Hair Twisties

This afternoon, we decided to go explore the West Palisades, which led us under an interstate.

The kids thought the supports were pretty cool.

We saw a dog who liked to go swimming for his tennis ball.

The kids were happy to pose for pictures.  With bunny ears.

Love this little girl in a big forest!

Owen liked going out on this tree extending over the river.  It was BIG!

This is what it looks like when you're not allowed to pull your pants down in the middle of a forest and pee with the boys.

It's very sad not being a boy, sometimes.

The pouting continued for all of about two minutes.

And then we were back on the trail.

And picking flowers.

We came across this snake.

This is looking at the beach on the East Palisades where we were just a few days ago, running and jumping over water and cleaning up trash.  (pssst. don't miss the long legitty creature standing up in the middle of the river).

After dinner, we got a bath and put hair up in twisties so Chloe could be a curly girl tomorrow.

She loves to ham it up for the camera.

And play Uno.  This girl has been an Uno playing fiend lately!

Hi Grandma Eloise!

Three Hikes in One Day

The day started early.  I texted Cristina and woke her up so we could drive out to Red Top Mountain and see the sunrise on Lake Alatoona.

Look close and you will see the moon out over the trees and more clearly in the reflection in the lake.

We photographed some of the resident geese.

They had lots to say about it.

Then we came home for breakfast.  And walked down to the nature trail with Chloe.  She led the way.

And showed us how she could jump fallen trees.

And tested the waters in her boots.  In spite of multiple warnings, she went in too far (shocker) and came home with water sloshing in her boots.

Such a gorgeous day!

Then we left the kids at home with Todd while I took Cristina to Sope Creek Farm where we had our family photos taken last year by Tyler of Blue Lily.

The river was higher than last fall, so we had a harder time walking across.

Back to the East Palisades

I picked up the kids early from school today so we could drive downtown and pick up my friend Cristina from the Coca Cola headquarters when her business meetings were over.  We then headed back to the East Palisades to show her some of the beauty of Atlanta.

The kids had fun showing off their running and jumping skills.

And they had fun leading the way along the trails, since they were the resident experts having been here once before.  ;)

We saw long leggity birds flying over us.

When we headed back to the parking lot, both kids started (voluntarily and unprompted) picking up trash along the river.  They even found a large bucket and old trash can that they used to stuff the trash in.

They stuffed it down as best they could so they could fit in even more trash to clean up the riverside.

It was such a gorgeous afternoon!

Cristina helped Owen carry his trash can of junk back to the parking lot dumpsters.

The kids with all the trash they collected.  They were so proud of themselves for helping clean up the environment.

And then there was more running and jumping the water before leaving.  Someone was soaked when we left.