Shaker Holy Hill

Apropos of nothing: a self-portrait:

This morning we went for a walk in Harvard to the Shakers' Holy Hill of Zion. The Shakers used to hold celebrations and dance off their sins etc. Molly did quite a bit of the walking herself.
This is within the site itself. Molly didn't want to spin for me but said I could take pictures of her skipping.

Here is Molly leaping off the mounting that used to hold the Lord's Stone.

Sprinkler

We are seriously at risk of driving our next door neighbors crazy with how much time we've spent playing with them this week. Molly flags them down from the window as they're walking back from the bus stop each morning and plays with Teddy at every possible opportunity for the rest of the day.

Oddly enough, they have a lot of matching outdoor toys -- the same tricycle, the same toy lawn mower, matching riding toys -- so they run around together doing the same thing. They mow our backyard, they had a tricycle race up the sidewalk. They swing on his backyard playground, play in his sandbox, in our sandbox, chase each other. Yesterday it was so hot. We were just about to get our sprinkler out when we heard a call over the fence asking if we wanted to play in theirs. I think Molly was already in their yard before I could even answer.

Dancing Queen

We're back from an action packed trip to Rochester for Anna and Jeff's wedding. We had a great time and here's rather a lot of photos. We tried to keep it short but these kids are too adorable to be resisted. We have a couple short movie clips that we hope to get posted shortly.

Friday morning at the farm

On the way to the Bridal Lunch

Saturday - getting ready for the wedding

A job well done by the ring bearer and the flower girls - everyone made it down the aisle

7:54 PM -Taking a walk to get a break from the reception - at this point I figured we'd be headed home soon

8:28 - Molly discovers the dance floor

8:37 PM (1 hour, 7 minutes past bed time)

8:53 PM - (1 hour, 23 minutes past bed time)

9:10 PM (1 hour, 40 minutes past bed time)

9:12 PM (1 hour, 42 minutes past bed time)

9:20 PM (1 hour, 50 minutes past bed time)

A few minutes later we finally got her off the dance floor and off to bed. She talked about it the whole way home (or at least until she fell asleep in the car).

And this picture from Sunday morning at the flea market sums up the mood of the whole weekend.

Ready to roll

Molly is super excited about the wedding this weekend. She packed her Mickey Mouse suitcase two weeks ago with underpants and socks, pulled it to the living room and told me, "I'm ready to go to Rochester." Last night she started asking questions about who gets to go down the aisle. Mommy? no. Lucy? yes. Molly? yes. Aunt Anna? no. I'm pretty sure she doesn't know what an aisle is.

Now I'm trying to pack that suitcase for real. Molly's helping. That is to say, she zipped the zippers, then put the suitcase in her bed, covered it with blankets and told me it was resting. Then she brought it some water to sip, a hunk of bread to nibble and then, when I made her stop jumping on it, she snuggled in bed next to it.


She just left the kitchen, saying, "I'm going to see how the suitcase is doing."
Oop, after some talking to it in her bedroom, which I couldn't understand, she just wheeled the suitcase down the hall, saying, "Pretty. Pretty. His mouth is pretty."
Now she's laying baby so carefully on top, whispering to her, and then ... oop ... spinning the suitcase and knocking the baby off.

Life is never boring when you're hanging out with a 2-year-old.

Mt. Watatic

We hiked up Mt Watatic this morning. It was beautiful day for it, sunny but cool and a good breeze kept the bugs away. I think Molly enjoyed hopping off various rocks on the path more than anything else.

Sleepy head

You fight with a kid for weeks because she doesn't want to sleep, then one minute you look over and see this at 5 p.m. Huh. We just carried her to bed and she seems to be staying. Cutie!!