long hill afternoon

yesterday ella and i met up with aurora and s. at long hill. it was the perfect, cool, end-of-summer afternoon with huge dragonflies soaring about and the late sunshine slanting through the leaves.

when we first arrived, ella sat on a big rock and finished her apple slices snack.

we practiced smiling "moderately" as opposed to "crazy" (see first picture for an example of "crazy").

here's a candid.

when aurora arrived we went into the gardens to find the late summer flowers.

here's aurora in the pagoda.

we found this frog pond. there is actually a huge frog right in the grasses in front of aurora. aurora climbed right up onto the ledge and was leaning over. so i was surprised, to say the least, when suddenly elenora fell forward into the water, getting her sleeves wet up past her elbows. ella is so un-athletic--especially compared to aurora!

but then we stopped to smell the roses.

aurora, of course, saw a 4-foot wall and did what she always does... she climbed up on top of it and started running back and forth! s. seemed completely unconcerned. aurora has always been athletic. she'll be a gymnast one day!

ella likes quieter things, like sitting on lawn chairs...

...and climbing slowly up steps...

...and getting kisses from mommy.