You might be a redneck if...

 you like attending the local Car Cruise downtown as much as this girl did last weekend!

Screenwriter/Playwright/Director

It all started with a Curious George episode a couple of weeks ago which showed a 2-minute real life clip of a homemade puppet show of Hansel & Gretel.  Beatrice became obsessed with doing her own puppet show of the same story, which she's never heard of before except for this brief condensed version.  I told her we needed to start with a storyline.  Here's what she came up with, word for word:

HANSEL AND GRETEL

Scene One/Kitchen

Two children are standing up in the kitchen of their house with their mom and dad. One of the kids is a girl and the other is a girl pretending she’s a boy.  They both sing, taking turns. 

Scene Two/In the Woods

The kids are in the woods.  A bad guy comes and sprinkles pepper on them and the kids fall asleep.  A fairy comes and wakes them up with her magic wand.

Scene Three/Gingerbread House

The kids find a gingerbread house.  They try to eat it, but the lady who lives in there is a witch and she comes out and she puts the girl who is pretending to be a boy into a cage.  The other kid doesn’t do anything. 

THE END

                Next, she decided on characters, then drew them all and glued them onto sticks:

The three scenes were designed:

Set construction began:

                                                  Beatrice was in charge of backstage:

Final preparations:

A dress rehearsal was held:

                                   and, of course, a proud curtsy was taken at the end of the first performance:

A "curtain" has already been added, painting of the stage is planned, and I can feel many new "scripts" coming our way:

UPDATE:  Tonight, after dinner, B. was busily decorating new popsicle sticks with paper and masking tape.  She then came into the kitchen and delivered "programs" for "her newest show, showing tomorrow night at 8:00."  The title?  Ramadan Witch Factory.  I think that one might make it off, off, off, off Broadway.

Visit from our PA friends

Jonathan and family arrived in the Nutmeg State for a few days and the two 4-year olds had a B.L.A.S.T.  But before those photos, first this one below of B. and her Lolo doing some early morning sketching when Lolo & Lola were in town last week for my dad's 87th birthday party:

Now, for the 4-year olds.  They make quite the pair.  Half the time Jonathan wore this cloth bag on his head and B. had her usual Ukranian headscarf, hand made and tied out of her blanket, which of course she ripped off when she saw the camera:

Here's what happens when you feed the kids early and let them "play" by themselves so the adults can have a peaceful dinner.  This was done with markers and, while they are washable, it took quite the scrub bins and 2 tubs full of water to get the job done:

                            Beatrice is in a, let's say "telling stories" phase, aka LYING, so it's hard to know how this happened.  Her version of course is that it was all Jonathan's idea and she "forgot to not do it" but then again she blamed him for two things today, and he left the house 24 hours ago, so she's not necessarily a reliable reporter right now.  This is a guilty face, that's all I know.  I was playing the part of furious and shocked, trying to not smile, but Anthony couldn't help but take out the iPhone for a couple quick pictures of the "evidence:"

We had a great time at the playscape/Splashpad, where they got a lot of energy out:

 Here is the "I've got water in my eyes" face which we get every time, and during every shampoo:

                                                   All passengers better jump ship with these 2 at the helm!:

                                           This girl can practice her ballet moves absolutely anywhere:

                              There's a steady flow of water running down this pole, and I think I finally got B. to stop licking/sucking it, and just touch it instead. It's a miracle she hasn't caught an infectious disease:

Fun, fun, fun.  Beatrice said this morning "I miss my friend.  I just wish he could live right down the street so we could drive very quickly or even just walk to his house!"  Couldn't say it better myself.....

SplashPad

Our favorite playground is one about 5 miles away, and Beatrice has gone there, mostly with her Daddy, for the past three years.  It was there that she really learned to climb and slide, and she has gradually risked expanding the boundaries of how far she'll go away from us.  Now, she's just like one of the "big kids" when we go there, running all over the place with her parents frantically searching to try to spot her every minute or two.  This summer, a "splash pad" was added to the park, a concrete area with six varying fountains spurting water intermittently and, let's just say, it is a hit.  We've had a couple visits there, and one is planned for today with our friend Ben. 

Not much picture taking these days

But above is a photo that our friend Karel sent of the moment B. greeted David at "the altar" in Italy a couple weeks ago.  I had not captured this moment, so I was so grateful for the beautiful shot!

This past week, B. attended Farm Camp each morning at the local farm where we get our CSA share each week.  It's a wonderful place and a treasure in our community.  She had a great time hiking in the woods, learning about animals and growing foods and flowers.  She came home with her artwork from the week and I saw that her favorite farm animal is a "princess cow."  I didn't know what a princess cow was exactly, but as you can imagine, it wears a crown on its head and tends to favor pink.