Bennett spends quite a bit of her time pretending to be a detective, only I don't think in her mind it's pretend. Here she is with her calculator and pen stuck in the waistband of her velour pants, notebook in hand. She's examining a piece of "evidence" she found at the crime scene, a rubber band. She also found a compact mirror shaped like lips and a journal of some sort. All of these items lead her to believe her suspect is a female. Ainsley better look out...I don't know what the crime is, but I can only assume that Bennett is about to take her in to custody if captured (Usually she takes on some police officer duties as she wraps up the case.)

The Good Samaritan

Bennett and I are playing the story of The Good Samaritan. She is the Samaritan who helped the injured man along the road, played by Oopsy Bear. I am the injured man/bear's caretaker. However, Bennett took it upon herself to wrap his arm and leg in baby wipe casts. As I type she is coming across masses of injured stuffed animals along the very same road where she found the original injured man/bear. Some of them have been scraped by thorny bushes, one has a broken leg from falling out of a roadside tree. The hospital beds are filling up, and worst of all, I don't think any of these people are insured! I hope the Good Samaritan is a rich Samaritan!

It's their trademark...Double Donkey Kick!

Two girls in their easter outfits are seen here, ready for an exciting day of church, family, candy and whatnot. Grant and I are pretty sure these two kids produced some of their loudest talking and wild playing ever today. They were pretty crazy, even with limited candy consumption.

We took a roadtrip to see family this weekend. The girls got to go for a carousel ride with their baby cousin. Bennett chose a lovely horse to ride. Ainsley was forced to ride an ostrich because it was the closest animal to Bennett, allowing for adult supervision of both children. This was pretty ironic because prior to arriving at the mall for the carousel ride, Ainsley and her uncle had been discussing her aunt's ostrich collection. She told him she doesn't like ostriches and that they scare her. You can tell by her face that she's a bit uneasy. She remained composed though, faced her fear, and enjoyed the ostrich ride. She even told her uncle later, as they again viewed the ostrich collection, "I'm not scared of these anymore. I'm fine with these (ostriches) now." Who knew a trip to the mall ride would be so helpful in conquering her great fear!

Language Explosion!!!

Every day I am amazed at the vocabulary skills of small children. It is beyond me how they learn to talk and understand so many words...Today Ainsley used the phrase "brand spanking new." That was fun. Also, Bennett was looking at a large pile of Mercer Mayer books. We have a lot of them. I asked her if she had come across any "duplicates," certain that she had not heard this word previously. She said that yes, she had. I said, "Do you know what duplicate means?"

Her response was, "Yes, it's when you have more than one of something or two of the same thing." What the heck?!! Who teaches this child these things? She is like a walking dictionary!

Aunt Courtney brought Bennett and Ainsley some unopened daffodils this week. It took about a day and a half for them to open up, and these girls LOVED watching the transformation. They are quite lovely looking and smelling, and they have pepped us up a little as we anxiously await spring. We did see a "robin redbreast" also this week. (at our house they cannot just be called "robins" for some reason, according to Bennett) Seeing that bird pepped us up, too!

"What's up with the chicken?" you may be asking yourself. Well, yesterday we went on a neighborhood walk and decided to go a couple of blocks farther than usual, as it was a lovely day. As we approached a house on the corner we saw this crazy looking chicken walking around in the front yard, along with a huge black and white rooster of some sort. They were alive, clucking and looking at us. As we approached them the rooster began to cluck loudly and raise up its tail feathers. Bennett and I were getting nervous, but we were able to pass without incident. We had a nice talk about how animals deemed "livestock" are not allowed to live in town, and how we were actually witnessing illegal activity. This is the type of illegal activity I prefer my child to be exposed to in order to teach her words like "illegal" and "outlawed", rather than true crime. It was fun to see these extraordinary birds on our ordinary walk. And it was a great lesson in law.

This morning I provided the girls with a little flashback to my own childhood by making them a paper fortune teller. Secretly I thought it would also be a handy way to help Bennett learn some of her color and number words. It was a hit! First, I made a fortune teller with all optimistic fortunes. Apparently it was kind of boring to Bennett to know all roads ended positively...she wanted an element of chance. So, I made a fortune teller with an equal number of good and bad fortunes. Unfortunately for Bennett, she kept ending up with only the bad fortunes...that's why she's looking a bit beaten down in the picture. Her most recent fortune was "Your supper will taste gross!"

Bennett performed a fine puppet show for us last night. It was about a pig who kind of looks like a mouse (left) and a brave knight (the Q-tip with a silver hair clip on the right). Interesting...