When I wrote that post the other day about how great Annalie and Bug play together now that they are older, I really wanted some cute photos of them together to illustrate my point. But they were so busy playing that they weren’t into posing for photos. And Brenda and I were—let’s face it—taking advantage of the fact that our kids were keeping themselves occupied, and we were far too busy talking and laughing and drinking our coffee to follow our kids around with cameras.

The next day before Brenda and Bug headed home, I made a point of getting some photos of them together. Wonder of wonders, they were cooperative. It’s like they are turning into actual people or something!

Crazy little people, but people nonetheless. As you can tell, they spent a lot of time in the yard on the trike and big wheel. They didn’t even fight over who got which! Wonders never cease.

Photo by Brenda Ponnay

We had to cram in some pottery-painting before the weekend was over, of course. Brenda is even crazier about painting than I am, with good reason. She’s good at it! That’s her plate that she painted in about 40 minutes flat. Not that I am jealous or anything. I’ll just be over here with the wrong end of a paintbrush and my dots.

Photo by Brenda Ponnay

Some of you are probably wondering by now if I can paint anything besides dottery. I can, but I like painting dots. They’re simple and fun and and rather zen. I will probably still be painting dots when I’m 90.

Annalie picked out this statue to paint, and I said, “Oh, cool, a dolphin! That’ll be fun to paint.”

“Uh, Mom, that’s not a dolphin,” Annalie pointed out. “It’s an orca.”

I looked at the sticker on the bottom of the figure, and she was right. I’m sure my mom is laughing as she reads this, because I was always the snotty kid who corrected her mom, and now I have my own child to tell me when I’m wrong. Ah, the circle of life.

Annalie gave her orca some body art.

Of course Bug painted her plate with various shades of green. That kid loves the color green. She even sang a little song to herself as she painted: “Green, green, green, green GREEEEEN, green, green…”

Troy ran errands in various parts of the mall while we were painting. When he was finished he was kind enough to take the girls to one of the fountains so they could throw coins in and make wishes while Brenda and I finished up our pottery. (Yes, my husband is awesome; no, I probably don’t appreciate him enough. I appreciate him a lot but I’m sure it’s not as much as he deserves. I’ll nominate him for that Best Husband Ever Award one of these days. Or, you know, let him watch an entire sporting event on TV without whining about it.)

Back at home, Annalie pulled out the little make-up kit she got for Christmas. Without asking me or Brenda, she liberally applied sparkly white eyeshadow to Bug’s face and pink blush to her cheeks. Then she made up her own face in a similar fashion. Luckily Brenda had a sense of humor about it and wasn’t bothered. Anyway, the make-up is all very pale colors, and it wears off quickly. I don’t think it’s even visible in these photos.

After the makeover session, they raided Annalie’s closet and got dressed up. Bug is wearing a dress of Annalie’s backwards. You can’t see all of Annalie’s outfit, but she is wearing a sundress covered in multicolored hearts, a red and pink polka-dotted sweater, and pink tights with white hearts all over them. And she looks like she’s just tasted a lemon.

Yep, there’s a good photo of the two of them having a blast together. Nice way to end a post, no?