Ahhhh....Sibling Harmony

So, a little disclaimer about the title: it's not always like this, but lately Rachel and Ian have been...well...liking each other! It's been a long time coming, but it is finally starting to feel like they enjoy each others antics (some of the time at least). Even though it's not perfectly harmonious, we'll definitely take what we can get. Ian really tries to copy everything that his big sister is up to. That unfortunately includes dressing up with a tutu whenever she's a ballerina. He'll run out of her room holding the skirt signing, "please, please..." very adamantly. Oh well, at least he's got a baseball shirt on too.
Checking out the moves.
The window in our front room is hours of entertainment. From the inside or out, they both love looking through, pulling faces, banging, and yelling with excitement. Every morning when Justin leaves they both stand there and yell to him. Needless to say, I'm sure our neighbors don't appreciate their enthusiasm.
Thanks to Curious George's idea, Rachel begged to find out what things dissolve in hot water. Even though this was SO gross to clean up (Bridget really almost lost her lunch on this one - what we do for science!), she kept herself entertained for almost an hour stirring, dumping, and watching different foods change in hot water. Her favorites "ingredients" were sugar, flour, and crackers.
Our weather has been very up and down this week. It's been pretty cold and we've been enjoying the leaves and then this weekend we had our first snow. Despite freezing winds, Rachel insisted on making the trek outside to try and form a snowball with the dust on the slide.

Later in the day, she chose this smashing outfit for the second attempt at snow playing.
Minnesota must have rubbed off on these two, because they're both tough in the cold. They played until Bridget dragged them inside because she was freezing.
One of our friends told us about the best bath idea ever: shaving creme drawing on the shower walls. Even though this picture doesn't show very much of the excitement, they were both thrilled with this project and it kept them entertained for quite some time.
Rachel enjoying the autumn leaves.
Ian working hard keeping the playground tidy.

In the mornings, both Rachel and Ian have actually wanted to sit by each other and look at books while they drink their milk. Rachel is showing one of her favorite companions, "Babydoll Aspen Lee."
We had some delicious cake from a neighbor's birthday and Rachel decided to decorate her nose with the frosting. She thought she looked so good she convinced Justin to "guard" Bridget (hold her) while she decorated Bridget too. Ian thought his big sister was so funny - ha, ha, ha. Maybe they really do love each other!
Here's our cute kids all dressed up for church.