birthday buddies: west coast edition (part three)

laughing together:

one morning when i did bebe's ponytail i asked nj if i could give her one. she agreed, and since her hair is so long i decided to do two instead. then bebe asked for two -- you might have to click on this picture to enlarge it, to see how silly she looked. i didn't tell her, though.

as far as bebe is concerned, "kuh-fohnya" is the land of playgrounds. on thursday we went to a great park that had a playground situated right next to a bike path.

after playing in the sand,

we walked down the bike path aways

(one of my fave pictures)

until we found some donkeys.

donkeys!

and a big tree stump to sit on

and a bridge with water, perfect for kneeling down on and looking at (respectively).

later that afternoon, we went to another playground right near nj's house which had, among other things, a fun clubhouse to play in.

"birthday buddies only."


on friday, we went back to the playground we had visited on our first day.

we brought the ponytail brigade.

shortly after these pictures were taken, bebe and nora jane found a whole bunch of those horrible bright-orange cheddar-cheese-and-peanut-butter crackers lying on the ground. being curious toddlers, they ate some, and being non-hovering mothers, it took a minute or two for us to notice that they'd done so. i gave bebe her allergy medicine right away and luckily, she didn't have a reaction but good lord, that was scary. i do wish that parents bringing foods to the playground to which many children have life-threatening allergies would be a bit more careful, but i'm sure if my own child wasn't affected i probably wouldn't think about it much either.

on friday afternoon i had to go in and wake bebe up from her nap. i took this picture first because i find it hilarious that she takes all the clothes off of all her babies before she falls asleep. she does this almost every day.

after nap we went back to the playground down the street from nj's house. the girls had a snack in their clubhouse

and bebe did a bit of exploring.

"mommy, i'm setting a course for boston! let's go home and see daddy!"

we had a wonderful visit and are very grateful to jill and jeff for being such gracious hosts (they gave us their bedroom to sleep in and kept us well fed) and to nora jane for sharing her toys so generously and not taking it too personally when bebe, for whom personal space is a major concern, mostly rebuffed her friendly offers of hugs and kisses. jill has posted some great pics of our visit over on her blog, too -- go see!

we hope that we'll see our friends again before too long... but next time, in boston. did i mention i am terrified of flying?

_