Alena and Nora's staycation

Alena and Nora have been pretty patient about all of the extra doctor appointments.  We have not been able to do some fun things that we had hoped this summer, but we have still managed to have some fun!  The big news in the neighborhood is Morgan got a new puppy, a Golden Retriever named Gideon. It took a little building up of courage, but now whenever the girls see the puppy in the front yard they go over and play with him.  He is so cute and he loves playing with the kids.  Most nights Nora will go to Rowan's house or he will come over to ours and announce "It's scooter time!  Nora started on her three wheeled scooter but now is riding her balance bike while Alena and Rowan ride scooters.  They ride up and down the street until it is time to go in, or until they see the puppy and run over to pet him.  Last night Rowan had his bounce house out and the kids had a great time jumping while the adults relaxed.  They have also been catching lightning bugs if they can manage to stay up past bedtime.  Ben has been reading Harry Potter to Alena before bed.  She loves the book, and Nora lays in the other bed in Alena's room and listens until she falls asleep.

 The girls pretending to be under the sea, then in a puppy house that they built (under the kitchen table while I was trying to clean the kitchen.)

Edith scored this cool backpack off Craigs List.  We will see if we get much use out of it.  She didn't seem to hate it.

Scooting down the street.

Another source of entertainment has been Jones.  The other night the girls were fighting while I was trying to prepare supper.  So I asked Alena to brush Jones.  Both girls cooperated and brushed him for 30 minutes, then chased Ruby around for the same amount of time trying unsuccessfully to catch her.  The next day they played school and Jones was the principal.  They made him an office with a place for him to sit in the sun and they gave him a hat.  Nora wanted to teach Jones tricks like Lucy the neighbor dog.  She is trying to get him to balance a treat on his nose.  I think it might take a while before he masters that.