Memorial Weekend

We had a great Memorial Day weekend, and hope yours was good as well.  Lots of park activities since the weather has finally started to warm up.  The girls are also tremendously content to just wander the backyard and neighborhood, picking up bugs and flowers, and trying to climb trees.  They're really social, and they always want to play with "my friends" (other kids), even if they don't know them.  At the park, Cassidy has become a master at swinging on the big swings.  Thankfully she holds on well, because of course she wants to go higher, higher!  Taylor spends more time climbing on things and running; the swings are not her favorite.

We had a great barbecue at our neighbor's house on Sunday.  There were at least 10 other kids there, and the girls were in heaven.  They played hide and seek in the house and outside, tag, and did gymnastics with the older girls.  They tried to catch a baseball, but it was being hit by a 1o year-old boy who was erratic to say the least!  Anyway, we didn't leave until about 8:30, and the girls were filthy and exhausted.  It was a blast.

On Monday, we went to a parade with about half the population of Illinois.  Apparently, besides enrolling in soccer, the other mandatory requirement for children in this area is that they join the marching band.  These school bands were HUGE.  It wasn't that way in Humboldt at all.  I remember that we needed to kind of poll all the schools and even the colleges to have enough participants to create a marching band!  Well, we saw our junior high school babysitter march by, which was a highlight, and of course we loved the cheerleaders (yep, another childhood requirement, I fear).  At one point some Elks type men marched by and one of the girls called out, "Hey, it's Captain Hook," because they all had really elaborate plumes coming out of their hats.  Good association, huh?

We played in the garden, and discussed weeds versus plants a lot.  This year we're growing beans, cucumbers, zucchini, peas, lettuce and beets.  We just put in a few rows of watermelon and pumpkins as well.  Still have to get in some corn, but that ground is a pain and I now dream of at least renting a roto-tiller.  Anyway, they're excited for that, and love to eat the veggies right off the plant.