Right before the school year started, we went to the free Duke Symphony Orchestra concert on the lawn. The weather was perfect, the music was great, and we all had a fabulous time! It's an annual thing and obviously a popular event, as there were gobs of folks there. We took a picnic and some bubbles and let Claire romp and run and have the best of times. And as a bonus, the lady sitting next to us on the grass had brought her pet: a little hedgehog named Henrietta! She let Claire pet and play with Henrietta, which was thrilling.
This is a terrible picture, but I was trying to get a good shot of the lawn as it was filling up. I did not succeed.
I snapped a couple pictures of Lily that have become some of my favorites.
Claire had the most wonderful time.
A couple of weeks ago was "Talk Like a Pirate" Day at Krispy Kreme, and we capitalized on it. I had put it in the calendar weeks before but completely forgot about it until my phone reminded me the day before. I looked up the details and remembered that you got one donut if you talked like a pirate, but you got a whole dozen if you dressed like one. So, obviously, we dressed Claire up and taught her to say, "Arrrrrgh, matey!" It was hilarious! I rigged up an eye patch (she wasn't crazy about it but was a good sport), tied a scarf around her head, and had her carry Fawkes as her parrot (although he's technically a phoenix. Shhh...). And because she has nothing pirate-y in her closet, she wore her striped Elsa dress, and we called it a day. We got our donuts and thoroughly enjoyed them for days.
Arrrgh!
Just kidding. I'm not really a pirate.
I just like donuts.
Brad is awesome about keeping up with the announcements from Duke about free activities that are family-friendly, and a favorite one recently was a showing of Finding Dory in one of the theaters on campus. We'd never taken Claire to a movie before, and we thought this was a perfect opportunity (kid-friendly movie, relaxed setting). Claire had never seen Finding Nemo, so we rented and watched it the day before. We told her we were going to go and see a movie on a GIANT tv, and boy, was she excited. It ended up being just the perfect first big screen movie for her. She was absolutely gleeful throughout the whole thing, enjoyed the popcorn that we took with us, and said that she "missed" the movie when it was over.
At the Duke chapel on our way to the theater. If you look carefully, you can spot Claire- the tiny dot on the ground to the left of the doors.
Another angle of the chapel.
There was this fun mural of Durham on the wall of the student center that I tried to get a good picture of, but Claire was either dancing around like in this picture...
...or scratching her bug bites. Bless.
"It's a GIANT tv!!"
We've recently made some new friends (actually mutual friends of some friends that moved away this summer) who live in a complex that has a pool. They invited us over to swim a few weeks ago, and while the water was a little too chilly to do too much actual swimming, we had a great time getting to know them a little better and sitting in the sun.
My happy baby.
And our good big girl.
We are still getting the hang of our limitations with two small children, but we've been able to do quite a few really fun things along the way! And most of them have been free, so YAY. We're excited about what fun activities may present themselves throughout the fall.
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