Lazy, Crazy, Day...

Elizabeth had a friend over this weekend. A sweet little girl that she considers another "sister". It was so nice to hear the sound of their laughter and to feel content knowing that Elizabeth would be getting her fill of dolls, dress-up, and such.

Somehow they get all sorts of ideas into their heads that would be "fun" to do, that (not so) surprisingly calls for big sis Em to help! I don't really mind, though. We don't get too many visitors way out here, so even if it's just a friend of Elizabeth's, it's still a nice change of pace.

They begged for me to take them down to the "swamp" to "collect snail shells". It's really just a marshy area down a hill in our woods, but they can easily spend hours there searching for the old shells that can be found there in abundance. They looked so cute, each wearing a pair of much too big galoshes, and carrying old, empty coffee tins. One carried a beat up, old butterfly net over her shoulder, while the other had her hands full enough with other essential tools they might have need of. I followed close behind, armed with a chair and a book or two to keep an eye on them and to be sure they wouldn't get into any trouble.

My thoughts kept straying from my book, though, as the sound of their laughter and their exclamations over "the pretty shells" reached my ears.

It made me almost wish that I was ten again; when life was still so completely carefree, when I was still young enough to think that hunting for snail shells was the most glorious way to wile away an afternoon. Sometimes growing up doesn't seem so wonderful after all...