a peek inside the fishbowl

It has been pretty busy around here these past few days.

Friday we hosted our first annual book swap for the neighborhood kids. I made up some invitations a couple weeks ago and the girls handed them out at school. (I made up some blanks in PDF format in case you wanted to do the same!) I have to say, the book swap idea is a keeper. We expected a bigger turnout, but it was great.

Ours was to take place Friday between 7:00 and 8:00 p.m.

It took them awhile to lay out the twenty books they’d painstakingly picked out to trade. And then, of course, they had to read them one last time:

It was over before I knew it. The book swap was basically it was an hour long playdate with a quickie swap at the end.

But it wasn’t long before they dove into their new reading material:

Saturday morning we biked for groceries and had a picnic at the park:

It was a gorgeous day.

And while the girls played, I relaxed and enjoyed the view.

The grass was long here at the park. The picnic blanket made a rectangular dent in the grass. I felt adrift in an ocean of green stems. The sky was clear and blue and I sat in the dabbled shade of a big tree. The girls played in the sand while I watched from afar. I don’t know exactly what they were pretending, but at one point I heard Sarah shout “I’m going to Shade Island!”

I thought about how much I love these kinds of days, and how I wouldn’t trade them for anything in the world.

*sigh*

Later on in the afternoon they went to a friend’s house and sold lemonade (and leftover books) to raise money for cancer.

While they were gone I filled up their old inflatable pool and deadheaded my peonies. This has become an annual event:

I think this is the last summer of the petal pool. We’ve been doing it for several years now, but they’re a mite too big for the teeny pool.

But then again, how big is too big? Had the water been a bit warmer I would have gone in for a dip myself. Who wouldn’t want to immerse themselves in such loveliness?