I got the kids a doll house, since they never had one, and I think Emma might be old enough to enjoy pretend play of this nature.  It is this one as it is the only one available in our town.

Anyway, instead of playing with the house, the most interesting part of the day for them was playing with the wrapping paper that the doll furniture came in.  Probably because it took me three hours to assemble the darn thing.  It did not help that I did it completely wrong the first time and had to take it apart, screws and all.

Here is Emma, pretending to be Cinderella, with a paper bag on her head.  In the background, her brother is eating watermelon in his high chair, and is upset that he is not being photographed.  Hence he got photographed as well, watermelon and all.

In addition, my hubby bought me a quad that everybody got very excited about.  The excitement had nothing to do with the actual quad, but rather with the goggles that one wears while riding it.

Emma is into playing "baby" so she likes to suck on a soother, which greatly enhances her charm and beauty.

I am off to bed.  It is late and I am so tired.  I ran 17 km today, of which the last 5 km were a high school fundraiser race, so rather faster than I would have liked to.  Next week we are supposed to be running a half marathon, just for fun (not an actual race, mind you, because we cannot afford to go to the Vancouver BMO Marathon on May 1 so we will just pretend we are there).   I will try to find some medal substitutes at the dollar store too :)

a new project

I have precious little time nowadays, but I would like to try a new project that might motivate me to take more photos of the kids:  for the next few months (i.e over the summer) I would like to take some photos of the kids or anything else that is interesting and post them on the blog, along with a paragraph of writing.  It is not much, but I would like to do it daily or at least every other day if possible.  Kind of like project 365 but with some writing, and not quite 365 because I am not that disciplined.

Speaking of discipline, I was swimming tonight in my adult swim class (it is a bit like master's swim club) and complained to the ladies that I did not feel like coming to the pool at 7 pm.  In fact, I almost never do, as it is late and I am tired, and the workouts are hard.  Another lady who teaches Physical Education at the local high school (and is very fit, and has two kids around the same ages as mine) said that once something is in her schedule, like this class, there is no possible option to skip it.  I drew a blank there.  I rewrite my schedule every five minutes.  In fact, I hardly have a schedule at all, other than the various classes that Emma and I go to, and work, and her preschool.  That is about it.  It is pretty hectic as it is though, and I would love to simplify it somewhat.  If I feel overwhelmed on some days, I definitely "rewrite" the schedule on the spot and scrap the class.

I guess that is why this lady is a lot faster in the pool (and, incidentally, on the running track) than I am.  Oh well.  Mental sanity comes first, and I am not as resilient as some other iron ladies.

So, on with today's pictures we go:  

The kids decided to play "explorer" in the  morning, at 7 am.  They woke up, had a shower and a bath (my kids like to wash, what can I say) and then Emma decided that they must put on hats and "explore".  She gathered some things that she felt that explorers must have in their purse, like my measuring tape, and my lipstick, and my Hermes vintage watch (tsk tsk, I took that one back) and went on gathering bird feathers as part of a great exploration project. 

I love them so much!  and they are a great team lately, playing all sorts of pretend games that I think might be the focus of my future photography.