Play time, Aunt Hilary and a quick visit to Seattle

Hazel imagines great play themes and is great at figuring out how to carry them out. This day she turned her doll high chair into a dog sled, and she hitched the dogs up to her night stand. Hazel just clarified that her sled was stuck in the mud, so she hitched it to a "swamp logger skid loader" to haul it out.

As she's been rediscovering all our Golden books by reading them herself, she's also been thrilled to play with my Eloise Wilkin doll. After some initial hesitation, I decided she shouldn't be sitting collecting dust on a shelf - the doll that is.

Yes, those are our Christmas lights still on the fence, but we don't turn them on anymore since the snow's melted. Hazel's been joining Daddy for watering in the evenings, but I think the force of the fire nozzle surprised her a little.

Play time in the circle with Cassidy. Once Hazel puts her helmet on, she usually happily runs around wearing it no matter what she's playing outside. 'Twas a good thing they had them on this day, as some of the wagon pullers got a bit carried away and sent the wagon on a wild run until it turned over.

This girl is seriously focused while reading. Her perch on the end of the chair doesn't look that comfortable to me, but it's where she usually sits in this chair, and don't those legs look long?

We were excited to welcome Aunt Hilary to our neck of the woods three weekends ago. While we also joined her later in Seattle for her official baby shower, Hazel wanted to throw her one of our own. Here she is with the flowers and presents... and then the guest of honor. 

Hazel excitedly led us through two party games and then was spot on in her ribbon guess for how big around Hilary was now. After present opening and pink lemonade cookies, we took Hilary for a drive down Turnagain Arm to see the majestic mountains. It was a little rainy and dreary, but this little bunny kept us smiling. (That's a lollipop from Easter.)

When the weather cleared up a day or two later, we also took her up into the mountains to show off one of our favorite spots. It was windy and quite chilly. 

I suppose we would have been warmer if we'd been running around like this little mountain goat.

On the way back down we made some great three-headed monster shadows.

We also took Hilary to the zoo, which she had visited more than two decades earlier. She didn't remember seeing this antlered beastie on the previous visit.

On the first day she was here, while we were driving about, Hilary got to see a moose, bald eagle and Doll sheep. Here are the same animals at the zoo, except I substituted Binky the polar bear for the moose, since I didn't take a moose picture.

The next weekend, Hazel and I flew down to Seattle for the official baby shower. The weather was excellent and Hazel spent two days playing outside with some of her favorite pals, although yes, these are all indoor shots. Hazel played, played, played, and we look forward to seeing everyone again when we're back in a bit for vacation.

Nope, not the same picture twice. There was a definite hat change.