Night and Day

We have had such gorgeous weather in the past few days. Both girls love to play outside, and the nice weather gave us a chance to spend some family time in the backyard this weekend. I love watching the girls play because it is just another opportunity to see their different personalities at work.


Allison loves to play in the dirt. She isn't a fan of messy hands at mealtime, but for some reason, mud does not phase her. She grabs handfuls of dirt and puts it in any container she can find.


Lauryn loves to play outside as well, but she despises mud, bugs, and generally anything that involves being dirty. She would rather play princess. Yes, even outside, she is imagining that she is a princess in her castle. She immediately identifies the witch (Allie) and chases her around with a hose (stick) to get her wet so she will melt away.


(She has not seen The Wizard of Oz yet, so it is a little scary that she came up with that melting witch bit all by herself!)


Anyway, let me paint a little picture of our afternoon outside yesterday. Brent is digging around one of our trees in an effort to save its life. Something about exposing the roots. Needless to say, Allison jumped on that train and started digging right along with him.


Here is the result:







Meanwhile, Lauryn was happily playing princess in her "castle":

Allison took a break from digging to take her turn on the slide. Suddenly, I heard screaming, crying, and general hysteria coming from that side of the yard.

I quickly turned around thinking someone had fallen off the slide or broke their leg or was being abducted.

Instead, I watched as Lauryn came up to me looking like this:

It seems Allison got a little too close on the slide, and tragically, as a result, THIS is what became of Lauryn's foot.

If you squint your eyes while pressing your nose to your monitor, you can almost see a few tiny specks of mud on her foot.

We stopped what we were doing to wipe the offending mud off of her feet so she could continue being Princess Lauryn Snow White in her castle.

And Allison continued her quest to become covered in mud by sitting next to a pile of it and stirring it around with a big stick.

Sometimes these girls are like night and day!