Laurel's Mind

Her mind is never stops these days and you can tell by the questions she asks while she is trying to settle down for sleep.  Most of them start with, what about....  she also ask many of them waiting for a laugh, knowing that the question she is asking is funny.

- What about... we had no bones?
- What about... you were me and Maya was Daddy and Daddy was Mommy and I was Daddy?
- What about... we had a pet unicorn that was purple, pink and blue and it cleaned our beds for us?

She also love to tell stories.  Her latest favorite is a story of a mean bear, a mean puppy and a mean kitty.  They have all sorts of adventures then they fall asleep.  But when they wake up they are nice!  Between her stories and Maya's songs our drive home is always entertaining.

I also love the way she asks questions. Every question she asks ends with, "or not" which I find to be very cute.

- Is it hot or not?
- Are we going to school or not?
- Do you want a bracelet or not?
- Is your favorite color blue or not?

Her sense of humor is absolutely amazing.  She has different voices she does for different animals.  And changes the tone if she is being a baby, mommy or daddy animal.  She likes to make a silly face, sound or position and ask - what do I look like now?  My favorite Laurel laugh is the one she does when she cracks herself up.  It is the best belly laugh ever.

The other day I asked her if she would stay 3 forever.  She told me no :-(

A trip to the Farm

There is a local farm near us and we decided to spend the day exploring and hanging out with the animals. We have been once before, but our visit was cut short by terrible news so it was somewhat cathartic to return and finish it out.  It is such a fun farm.  We got to pet the baby animals, have conversations with the parrots and ride horses.  There are chickens running all over the place - Laurel would yell cock-a-doodle-do to them as we walked by.  We took a train ride, played in the playhouses, had a picnic lunch and slid down the GIGANTIC slide.  It was one of those great quality family days that seem so rare with our busy schedules.

Beautiful gardens everywhere.

 They both say this was their favorite part - it better be considering the amount of time we (or should I say Rey) waited in line!

Baby goats.

Bunnies.

 And piglets.

The coolest playhouses ever made!  I think they could have played in these all day. 

My big 5 year old. 

Go Bananas

The girls girls take a sports class at school that teaches them many different sports and games.  They love this class and will sometimes come home and teach us what they learned.  Here is a video of them doing the "Go Bananas" song.

Accessorizing

Red, white and blue!

It was red, white and blue day at school :-)

Wonder where she gets it...

It couldn't possibly be her father's influence :-)  Maya's first drawing of a T-Rex!

A weekend away

A few weeks ago our family of four spent a long weekend in Seabrook, WA.  It is a quiet little town right on the ocean and was the perfect escape from the daily grind that we all needed.  We spent our days going on walks to the beach, kite flying, sand castle building, bike riding, playing at the park and swimming in the pool.  We even found a giant tree house to play in! The house we rented was the perfect size for us and included anything we could ever need.  The girls slept in bunk beds which they thought was the coolest thing ever.  There was a firepit in the back so we spent evenings roasting marshmellows and making smores.  The best part was having no particular schedule and nothing that needed to be done.  This will definitely be a place we visit again - Laurel keeps asking when we get to "go to our new house again".

(Maya made a treasure map)