Playing cars in the mud and on the old barn beams is the best way for a muddy little girl to spend her day, as well as show off her farmer's tan.
Visiting with the new fun outdoor "pets," our two five-lined skinks that have moved into an ant-ridden wood pile, is always a must.
Oh, and how a touch of the tail can make everyone so excited!
A trip to the upper cattle field, with adorable babes at my skirt, one begging to be up,
one showing off her snapping ability,
is quite the perfect way to end the day. It does so with sun and open space. So good for the soul. Like boys, off doing their boyish things, and hearing the tractor make it's way up the woods paths to meet up with us.
And from the trees they emerge, a girl and her Papa on their tractor.
And there's a dog to chase them, rip-roarin' through the fields like a bird on the wind. She loves these trips as much as we do, I'm sure.
I love these trips because it gives me pause to do wonderful things, like grab quick snaps of a perfect baby-Papa-smooch-fest.
You just can't beat those smiles.
Or that sky, when Bella takes to the fields with a little one trying to follow along in the warm, glorious sunlight.
These girls love their sister so much, and it's no doubt why. She is the best big sister, I'm fairly sure.
Mostly because she loves them back the same.
She's my girl, long and tall, growing just like one of those blades of grass. Oh so fast.
And at the end of the day, she's even my photographer, my self-portrait assistant.
These days can be so so full. Full of activity, of beauty, of warmth, of love, and of life. All in a day. And even when you didn't get accomplished anything that you set out to do - that wood pile is staying in place as skink-home, and that tree we went after for firewood was rotted, darn it all - it's still all good. Because you got done just what you needed most, to take it all in. And that is worth it, every bit.
