Emily (L) and Madeleine (R) playing with a castle Oma and Opa sent from Germany. The girls' father had a wonderful time putting the castle together!On our trip from Spokane to Williamsburg we had to kill approximately three hours in the Las Vegas airport. We decided to walk over to the other terminal and consequently take advantage of (play on - of course out of the way of other passengers) the moving walkways between the two concourses. The airport completed the walkway area fairly recently and apparently Till had checked it out on his way to Spokane, whereas I had not seen it. As we were walking I kindly pointed out to Till that if he somehow led us out of the secure area I would murder him with my bare hands as I didn't want to go through security again. Madeleine stopped, looked up and informed me "We don't kill. Mr. Franklin said not to murder." Mr. Franklin is the girls' Sunday School teacher and I'm guessing we have had some discussion regarding the Ten Commandments.
The other day I heard one of the girls running around the main floor of the house. This was slightly concerning as I was upstairs and the girls were both in the family room when I had headed upstairs. We have a gate across the door to the family room as it allows luxuries, like being able to run upstairs and switch a load of laundry from the washer to the dryer while knowing the girls are in a "secure environment". Apparently, Madeleine and Emily had figured out if they took their child-sized chairs and climbed up on the half-wall separating the family room from the kitchen, they could use a kitchen chair to climb down on the other side of the wall. Voila! Freedom! When I went downstairs and asked what was going on, I was informed "Emily show I how!" by a very happy Madeleine. This is not a good development.
Since our return we have started "music school". I go with the girls (next year they can go alone) and it is just an hour on Tuesday mornings. Both girls wander around the house singing, so we thought this may be a popular activity. True to form, Emily launched in right away with great enthusiasm. Mind you, she did not know any of the lyrics (many of the students started last "semester"), but that did not prevent her from singing along with everyone else, just two words behind. Madeleine was a bit more cautious and observed what was going on for a while. However, about 2o minutes into class, she too began singing along.
Our other exciting news since our return is that we got to "take care" of Harry while Erica and her husband, Jay, were on their honeymoon. That poor traumatized rabbit. He is used to an adult-only environment and then the three of us walk through the door. While the girls are gentle and try to be quiet - my guess is that is one relieved bunny when we leave him in peace. I personally greatly appreciate his role-modeling a love of vegetables!
