Picnic in the Park

I know I need to write about out trip to St George's and Mike's memorial, but it seems a little overwhelming because it was such an important thing to us and so perfect and wonderful.  I don't want to rush and forget anything, so I will tackle it when I have more time.

I'm still feeling a little (maybe a lot) sad at having to leave our family and friends, knowing this will probably never happen again, getting us all together like that.  But we have the memories and can exist on them for a long time.

But in the present, we're gradually coming into warmer weather, and the girls and I went to the park yesterday, not the one across the street but one we pass on the way to school.  It's called Fisher Park, but Graysen calls it Community Park - Komuny Park.

We always have to have our lunch boxes with food and drinks.

Silver glitter shoes and a black tutu - perfect playtime outfit.

The one thing that Fisher Park has that she loves is the zip lines for kids, but as far as other things, it's more of a big-kid park.  She's gradually beginning to be able to play on some of the things, but Katherine really just spends her time wandering around and scaring me to death climbing up the tall steps to the slides - big curving ones.  She came down one slide, twisting and turning, and looked a little shook up, so she refused to try again.

When we first got there, Katherine saw this and went running to it, yelling "IGLOO!"  She listens and concentrates on books and TV shows and really has a very good vocabulary for just being 2.  

She is beginning to like the merry-go-round and holds on nicely.  She really likes for me to sit there and ride with her, and I did a few times, but I'm not a big fan of riding around in circles.

I was glad to see Graysen tackling this "spider web."  She met 3 new girlfriends in the space of 30 minutes, so excited to tell me about her new friends.  They never bother to exchange names, just run and play alongside each other.  Then when one friend would leave, she would sit and look sad and say, "I miss my new friend so MUCH."

All the picnic tables were in the sun, so we found a shady spot on the grass to eat their lunch.  Katherine entertained herself by running in circles around Graysen, and then they both ran in circles down into the "hollow".

I don't think we've ever left the park - or anywhere - where both girls are happy to leave.  They complained all the way to the car and Katherine complained all the way home, but once we got home, Kate went immediately to sleep, and Graysen had a tea party with 2 of her dolls - Millie and a nameless one.

Graysen needed to change clothes once more for the tea party and ended up choosing this dress I found at a consignment shop years ago. She loves it a lot now that it's too little, but Emily and I thought the hem length was sweet and old-fashioned looking.

Just adding a video from this morning's romp in the freshly cut grass. 

Graysen has on Katherine's skirt and vice-versa.  It is hard for Graysen to hand down clothing to her sister and insisted on wearing the 2T flamingo skirt.  Kate doesn't really care what she wears, but she was really worried about some "rabbit poop" she thought she saw and mentioned several times.  I wish I had half the energy these girls have.