Today, it was love...

Lucy has finally managed to master the steps to our secret garden.  The garden at the top, hidden away by bushes and trees, that she's been desperate to get to since forever.  Usually she holds tight onto the hand of one of her siblings to get to the top, but today she went solo and was so proud of her little self.  So proud in fact, that her little smiley face  looked  almost effervescent with joy.  Up and down she went, teetering at the top on occasion in a way that would have had her Daddy running to 'save her'.  But she didn't need saving, and she certainly didn't want it either.  The couple of times that I reached out a hand to steady her, it was firmly pushed aside and the determination of her expression, making it quite clear that she was fine and dandy without her Mamas help, thanks very much..

This is often the view, as I run to keep up with her, such an independent little lady, this one. 

She may look like me, but I'm pretty sure she's no shrinking violet, thank goodness for that!

Tiredness got the better of her eventually, and I swapped one little minx, for a couple of others....

Joseph, Poppy & the Bounce!

How I love days like this.  Days where they play for hours and hours, shrieking with joy, giggling, thinking up new games, dreaming up new dreams, it's just....sparkly and beautiful...

'Oh don't watch, Mummy' Joey says as he finally notices me!  'No, no, I'm not - I'm just playing with my camera, don't take any notice of me, you just carry on', I reassure him....but he's already back into the game and pays me no attention...

Swinging eachother round and around, they giggle until they both get hiccups, and Poppys hair is a big ball of electric fluff!

How much longer will days like this last, I wonder.  What age will my boy be when he becomes more aware of what other people think.  How old will he be when that age gap becomes too wide, and playing with his younger sister won't be 'cool' any more.  I am dreading that day....I don't want this to end.  As he approaches 8, I can't help thinking that we might be on borrowed 'Joey and Poppy' time.

My two little eccentric ones.....how I love them so.  And how I love days like today, when it's just love!

Elefun & Flutterbyes!

The latest and greatest obsession in the Wood household at the moment is blue, it has a plastic trunk and spurts out coloured paper butterflies all over the place.  Its been an on/off love for years but right now, it gets taken out of the box every single day.....

Hours of fun are spent, refilling the little blue body, replacing the trunk and then watching the butterflies spurt out of the top and flutter down, as they try to catch them with their nets....Poppy's serious little face, as she tries so hard to get them into the net, and her big grins when her efforts pay off, and Lucy looking like a little drunken elf, as she staggers around looking more like she's swatting flies...

And if my kids have taught me anything, it's that doing things the conventional way is vastly overrated, and sometimes (actually pretty often), it's much more fun to improvise.  

Who said elephants needed trunks anyway!!!

And it was a pretty good distraction, because today Daddy left our home again for another few days and as always, it was hard to say goodbye!

Garden Sprites

When I was a little girl, I spent hours in the garden, with my sister.  We had our very own version of home made perfume, taught to us by our Mother, and aptly called, 'stinky whiff'.  We would fill little jars with water and add whatever petals were available in the garden at the time, maybe a few leaves for good measure.  We dreamt, we created and we lived in our little worlds of make-believe.  Hours we spent, decorating swings with garlands of wild flower, making mud-pies, and  foraging for chives, nasturtiums petals or seeds to chew on until our breath stank and tongues were hot.   We turned chairbeds upside down, inside out, arranging them with crocheted  blankets and making tents out of them...lying there with the sun streaming through the gaps onto our little bodies.  Oh I long for those days sometimes...happy summers, just my imagination, my sister and I..
I watch my babies doing the same things, history repeating itself, little Emma and little Kate, discovering all that life has to offer.  All brand new for them.  Lucky lucky little girls, and their imaginations.

They run, they sing, they laugh, they play.  It's the beginning, just the beginning of some of the most amazing years of their lives, together.  They don't know it yet, but one day, they will.