Friendtastic Week

 This week, Violet had her summer camp for two days, and Cora had a largely unplanned week.

On Monday, Cora and I went to the library during Vi's camp. In the evening, we went to Colleen and Rigo's for a little birthday dinner for Colleen.

As the little girls get older, the four children are all playing together even better. Violet and Liana came up with the idea to dress up as princesses.

Rigo and Colleen have a great back yard for children - they live in a more rural part of town, with a large property with lots for the kids to do.

We heard roosters crowing when we got out of the car, prompting this from Violet: "I hear a chicken dog!"
We asked her what that looked like, and she said it has a head like a chicken.

What about the body, we asked.

"It has a body like a chicken too."
So, what makes it like a dog?
"It's brown."
I love 3-year-olds.

 On Tuesday morning, we walked over to the big park for storytime with Miss Carol, one of our Mom2Mom mentor moms. When Violet was tiny, we used to do Carol's storytime pretty regularly, with Genia and Juliana. It was nice to be back.

Our friend Kasia and her girls, who are 7 and 4, also attended.

 On Wednesday, after taking Violet to camp, Cora and I drove to Uncle Bill and Aunt Patty's house, where Cora spent a couple of days. More on that later...

JT, Callie and Jonah came up to play on Thursday. After living in separate countries for 9 1/2 years, it's such a treat to see her (and her children!) regularly again.

 Cora returned Friday morning, and we also welcomed the long-awaited return of Juliana, Maya and Natalia.

They've been on an extended trip visiting Juliana's parents in Brasil, and before that, we were both busy with end-of-school activities. We actually hadn't seen each other since Violet's birthday, and with that being a party, it wasn't a "quality time" playdate for the girls.

All that to say, we all really enjoyed catching up Friday.

Friday evening, the fun continued. We went back to Colleen and Rigo's for a barbecue; this time it was just our two families together. Colleen converted Liana's crib into a toddler bed that day, and Liana was very happy to show it off. "Look, look, Miss Colleen cracked the side of Liana's bed! She cracked it off!" Violet told me.

Thankfully, Violet didn't ask about "cracking" her own bed apart. I think she actually still prefers the comfortable confines of those bars. At least, I hope so.