Now it is amazing to me the things that entertain kids...it's just like buying fancy toys, but your kids just want to play with cardboard boxes and pots and pans.  Here's this great playground, and Ben spends forever just picking bark off a tree!  But all is not in vain; they love the fort and the sandbox and the glider and the swings...they also love exploring the whole backyard...Ben can find the most obscure things...like an old electrical cord buried in the ground with just a hint of the top showing...he loves the most minute finds!  Or better yet, find the latch to the gate going out and see if we can't figure out how to open it!  Let me tell you, Ben has already figured out how to open doors with the child proof guards on the handles...or how to wedge himself on poor Eyore so he can jump over the gate into the off-limit areas of the playroom!  

Back to the outdoors...we set up a great pool...the boys have had more fun taking water OUT of the pool than swimming in the pool.  It is just great to have all this space for them to run, run, run...my goodness, the energy of these twin boys!  I've gotta frequent the gym just to keep up with them!

Some of my favorite memories of this visit have been when I hand something to the boys that they request and they say 'thank you' without being prompted.  Or when one of the boys wants to get past the other and says, 'Excuse me', also without being prompted.  Mind you, they have their squabbles and are really working on obedience right now, but they have such sweet, tender hearts!  I love it when McLean says, "I love you" after he has been scolded.  I had a project to finish; painting Piper's kitchen pink from the original red and blue.  Ben sat down quietly by me and played with play dough while I painted.  Sweet!

We took a walk to an area near our house in the woods for a picnic, and a butterfly followed us all the way there!