I'm not your friend. I'm your mother.

That's usually the kind of mommy I am. Pleeeeeease don't ask me to play pretend. Or dress-up. Or color. I'll hook you up with the activities all day long, but I really do want to go about my day and get things done. Not play Barbies or army men. I rationalize this poor attitude by telling myself that the original mommies- the ones who hunted and gathered and later tended farms and stuff did not play Barbies or army men either. Nor did they play dress-up because they were too busy stitching together real clothes and doing other things like making sure everyone was still living at the end of the day. And civilization grew up just fine, didn't it? Even with generation after generation of mommies who didn't fingerpaint.

But, I needed to get outside today, so we went on an adventure. I love adventures!! I won't play pretend, but I can get all behind an adventure. We went to find a "famous" tree in our area (exciting already, no?). It did take some looking, but finally we (and the little girl next door) were successful. And how cool is this tree?

Of course the late hour provided us with beautiful light in the little clearing in the woods where the tree is located. I was actually a little disappointed that it didn't have more branches that they could climb up and use to scale the tree, but they were completely into climbing along the big extended branches. They stretched all the way to the ground! It was great! The light was great for photos too!

The pumpkin one is thrown in there just because. And to point out that the hair is cool, but with it comes the skin that even breaks out when the poor child eats an APPLE, for heaven's sake. Check out the lower lip and chin. Ewww...

PS-What the heck is up with the picture arrangement on this page? I can't figure out how to arrange it so that you get anything other than a spontaneous case of ADD looking at it. And the cutie, cute B&W picture of One and Red that is all caddywhompus (heck yes, that's a word!)? That one really ticks me off because it's my favorite and I can't get it turned around! Arrgghh!