Renaissance Fun.....

It should not surprise anyone that despite all of my efforts to the contrary, our little girl loves princesses, and all things princess-like. So a day at the Renaissance Festival was an obvious hit.

Sequoia had great fun listening to the music and watching the people. She even met a real princess and got to speak to her and everything. She was beside herself. That was almost as neat as her pony ride. She really loves her pony rides.

One thing that all little princesses have, however, is tiny little princess legs. So mom and dad get to do a fair share of playing the part of her pony.

Puddle jumping....

We woke up Sunday morning to the sound of a steady rain outside of our open windows. A very pretty and peaceful sound.

Peaceful that is until a certain 2 1/2 year old decides it is time to go do some puddle jumping.

So before showers, or breakfast, or even getting dressed, it was outside to explore the wonderful world of wetness.

For the uninitiated, these trips do not happen without some degree of packing and toting involved. It is evidently quite critical to bring all essential items along such as baby dolls, hats and beach buckets. Essential as defined by Sequoia that is. There is very little room for pride or dignity in this profession.

But the puddles were good....not too deep, not too muddy.

Sequoia was well equipped in her sporty lady bug boots, pajama bottoms and rain jacket.

She accessorized with a walking stick until the dogs stole it from her.

She was not sure that she was thrilled about that development.

And just in case you were wondering where Sequoia picked up her ability to dress for the weather, I think it is safe to say our little apple did not fall far from the mommy tree.

End of school party....

So summer certainly got away from me. Let me go back a few weeks or months and start bringing Sequoia's adventures up to date. Her school year is pretty much 365 days with no real summer vacation, but they throw an end of school picnic in August to mark the end of one school year and the start of the next.

They hold it at the old church camp that was across the creek from our house growing up. It is sort of fun, to me anyway, that Sequoia has some geographic overlap with my childhood when things like this happen. The highlight of the afternoon was the pony ride!!! Sequoia loved it and did very well, showing great posture while riding and a good work ethic when it came time to give old Tugboat a wash down after the ride.

Running a close second to the pony rides were the cupcakes. Our little darling ate four of them....or at least the icing off of four of them. That icing thing is a mommy trait. The devious grin might have come from daddy.

Certainly a big part of why Sequoia loves her school so much had to be her teachers. Here she is with Miss Lynn. Sequoia absolutely adores both Miss Lynn and Miss Julie. She has now moved on to the next class....she actually got bumped up a level to the more advanced group due to her well developed social and verbal skills....but Miss Lynn and Miss Julie still regularly check in on her.

Here Sequoia is feeding some watermelon to her good buddy Dezmin. He was a fun part of her first year in school.