Pictures of the day

The girls are on to me. They have figured out this "picture of the day" thing. And they want to to be "it". So I now they'll periodically strike a pose and say, "Hey Mom...here's your picture of the day." Or Lucy just says "Picture of me". She started early this morning after breakfast--she fashioned her favorite accessories, which now include my Ugg boots. 

And then we had to try out a new park today before the weather turns permanently cold. We drive by it every Wednesday as we take Ella to orchestra rehearsal, and with the weather in the 50's, we had to go out of our way to give it a whirl. It scored quite high by Bowcut girl standards. 

This one was a planned "picture of the day" moment on behalf of the girls. But yet I could not get them all looking at the camera. I am starting to think my girls have a camera attention deficit disorder. It matters not how many times I say, "LOOK AT THE CAMERA" or everyone say, "BOWCUT BUS" or "1-2-3---LOOK AT ME NOW!!!!"

And one little epiphany before I sign off. It's taken me awhile to come to this point, but today I think I have accepted the fact that I am no longer a "young" mom. I still have relatively young children, and in terms of Bethesda standards, I am still a spring chicken (the neighbors have deemed me the baby on the block). I guess I mean that I've been at this awhile and I know a thing or two. There was a group of younger Moms...probably in their late 20's chatting at the park today. And they each had one toddler that they were helicoptering over. Their conversation turned to dinner time and how to manage preparing dinner with a kid around. And one of the women told the others that she just learned the greatest dinner trick from one of her friends--so easy and good. Rice mixed with cream of chicken soup, a package of fried onion mix and chicken. And the other women were in awe and so excited about this amazing recipe discovery. Not that this is a frequented meal in our house, due to carnivore/vegetarian tensions, but I had to chuckle. Perhaps it was smug of me, because I am certainly lacking in the creative meal ideas--but really--this secret is right up there with tuna noodle casserole. But it makes me wonder what inexperienced things other "senior" moms have overheard me say. "Can you believe my 9 year old rolled her eyes at me?" Or "All I do is drive these kids around."
"HA! It's only the beginning", they must say under their breath.