dog days

I love putting Adelle in charge of things. She either feels delighted and empowered or crumbles to the floor wailing about being like Cinderella (a trick that her sister taught her). So I was pleased when she jumped at the chance to fill the bath tub and get the dog shampoo, washcloths, towel, special dog brush thing and dog perfume--all by herself.



Poe was sufficiently subdued as Adelle lathered her up for about 15 minutes.



Tess--"Poe is the most beautiful thing in my life"



Also...

The girls started their Chinese class today. Here they are with their friends Ava and Sophia before class. They loved their class, and we are grateful to Aunt Tian Tian for sparkling (chinglish) their interest.





PS these are pictures of apartments I want to sublet in Barcelona this summer. Since it is difficult to inspire visits to Dallas in the summer I thought I would try parking it in Spain for a month next year. Any takers? I don't really want to go but the girls need to learn Spanish too, so I have volunteered.

afternoons with delanor

labor day weekend

I knew labor day weekend was going to be a good one when Tom and I both got to sleep in Saturday morning and woke up to this...

The girls had dressed themselves appropriately for a holiday weekend brunch and were content with parent-less conversation and chips for breakfast.

Saturday night we held an exciting, award winning runway show with friends.

Contestants were given vintage, year-old, clydesdale, running medals for fashion effort and bravery.

Sophia and Adelle

With Heidi being out of town, we struggled to entertain ourselves Sunday night. Tom and I decided to play along when the girls asked us to dress up in something fancy enough to attend the restaurant they had set up in the family room. Tess was creating a mood for the restaurant with some music when things went disturbingly awry for her.

I can't decide if my favorite line is "You don't deserve any food!" or "You don't respect me!"

Monday

We headed back to Burgers Lake to share in the goodness with Tom.

The girls were happy to finally swim with their Dad this summer and I was happy to get some much anticipated trapeze time. Tom failed to master the point-&-shootness of our automatic camera so unfortunately, I don't have any action shots. At least we have this picture of the awesome structure and my new trapeze outfit. Every credible trapeze artist needs a cape.

The weekend's happiness even spilled over into Tuesday's back to school routine.

Who wouldn't want to walk these girls to school?