Friends and visitors

Dear children,

I have yet to catch you up on our amazing Rapier family reunion we recently had but I will continue to go on to quickly tell you about a few fun things.  First, friends!  As of a couple months ago we have found more great friends that you are thrilled about.  We recently had a great trip to the Providence zoo where we ended up skipping the animals and instead had a picnic outside on the lawn and played at their brand new nature/creative playspace.

we found this great tree and used it as our house

peeking inside through the door

gathering food

showing off the leaf plates all set up with food for a feast!

inside the zoo, the newly constructive playspace I mentioned- checkout that treehouse!

catching fish and putting them down the stream was the favorite activity

more water play

In other news, we have had some visitors!  Pets, that is.  We have enjoyed pet-sitting one doggy and are looking forward to our other regular dog guest, "Sarah" coming this week.  Perhaps even more exciting than that have been the SNAILS!  (And slugs and worms)

yes, I heard, "look Mom!" and saw this when I turned around :)

 Luthien I have mentioned that you love animals and insects of all kinds, and we had been dying to play with some snails this summer because we talk about them a lot, especially after Nana got you a great snail book and stuffed animal for your birthday.  Well, since we are walking the dog early in the morning now, your wish was granted!  We found 6 snails, 2 slugs, and 2 worms over the course of 2 days outside our little city apartment.  We had literally been digging in the few real dirt spaces we have in our area for months, so needless to say we were surprised to find them all in plain view one morning on the sidewalk where we walk the dog.  We set up a little temporary habitat for them and enjoyed them a few days, but I am happy to say that today was the release day.  You of course resisted this at first, so I just kept mentioning it casually and slyly read and told stories about animals kept in captivity vs. living freely.  You were ready to re-home them this evening, and at dinner when we each went around telling the happiest part of our day, you said, "when I found a home for my snails in the wild."  Hooray!

more visitors?  Nope, just my little wild animals at play...these fabulous masks were a birthday present for you Luthien, made by a dear friend/your teacher at our church!

Love,
Mama