Evening

Last night was just one of those nights.  One of those slow, sweet evenings... when the air cools down and the light gets soft, and we simply enjoyed being together.  Daniel had to work a little bit late, so we grabbed the sidewalk chalk and a quilt for the baby and waited for him.

We met a new neighbor, and Elli spent a good ten minutes shooting the breeze with another neighbor and his dog.  She invited him to come to her new house and see her. He laughed and loved every minute of it. We drew lots of pictures (see Jonah inside the whale?), played hopscotch (well, sort of), and Elli pretended to be several different animals.  She even stood on her tip-toes like a giraffe and tried to eat leaves off the tree.  The whole time was just lovely, but my personal favorite was seeing how much these two girlies love each other.  Caroline just adores her big sister, which you can see in how she looks at her.  And that superwoman move?  She starts doing that when Elli is moving in her direction.

I also traced around Elli with the chalk (several times).  She then traced around me, and I wish you could see it better, but my "body" takes up about a fourth of our driveway. She was so proud of herself!

We continued to play well after the sun went down.  When I could have taken them inside and started baths and picking up toys; I held on a little closer to my baby and played a little harder with my chalk-covered daughter.  We stayed outside until their daddy rolled in the driveway.  Caroline fell asleep on my chest, her sweet little nose nestled into my neck.  I soaked up every precious snuggle.