Friday--yippee!

Whitney and I had a fun playgroup today at the Environmental Center. Miss Christine, a naturalist, takes us on hikes and finds bugs and other cool stuff to show the kids. She does this once a month and we love it! Last year when we participated there were a few very active boys (Brandon included) who kept it very interesting. It was lots of fun, but not a relaxing morning. This year it is almost all little girls, most of them right around Whitney's age. It was so different. I wasn't constantly looking around to see who Brandon was poking with a stick or making sure he didn't get too far ahead of the pack.

Here the girls are checking out a camel cricket.

Is North Carolina beautiful or what?
I can't believe Utah is already getting
snow. The leaves haven't started turning here, yet,
but there is a little nip in the air the last couple
of days. Andrew always says, "There's football in the air!"

Here is Whitney giving me her "princess smile."
*sidenote* I've already told this to some of you, but it's a cute story, so I thought I'd post it. Whitney is really into "happily ever after" right now. She has apparently seen a few too many kisses at the end of princess books because she was trying to kiss us and Brandon with long, drawn out kisses and she would say, "Happily Ever After..." We told her she can only give "happily ever after kisses" after she gets married... in the temple...when she's much older. So now she talks about that all the time! Every time she gives us a kiss she says, "Not a happily ever after kiss? When I'm married in the temple, I'll give my husband a
happily ever after kiss."

Back to our day, at the end of the hike, Miss Christine takes us back
to the building and often brings out a snake for the kids
to touch. I'm so glad Whitney is having these experiences
now and will possibly not have fear of snakes or bugs when
she gets older. Do you think that's theory will work?

As for Brandon...

He is doing great. He had a smiley face from school every day this week.
In his own words:
I had a really good day. But, guess what? We did that thing that we did yesterday where we changed it around and first we did rest time and then we did outside. But sometimes we do it outside and then rest time.
Me: What's your favorite part about school?
B: Going on the computers for center.
Me: What do you do on the computers?
B: Do fun things. And paint and stuff. The end. Goodbye.

He is never this concise. He must be building something really cool out of legos in the playroom, because he was in a rush to get back there.