Flower Girl

The kids have a large fenced-in back yard full of slides, swings, climbing equipment, playhouse, balls, shovels, riding toys, play kitchen area, art board, picnic table,etc, etc, etc! They also have a large fenced-in side deck with a water play area, picnic table and gazebo. The best part about those areas for me is the fact that they are fenced-in. The house has a small front porch surrounded by flower gardens and a large front lawn - NOT fenced in. Where do you suppose Smudge always wants to play these days? You guessed it - the front yard!

The other day while Jboy was napping I gave in and said Smudge could play out front if she stayed on the grass while Amma sat on the porch and relaxed in the old wicker rocker there. Needless to say, I didn't get much sitting or relaxing done. I seemed to be off the porch every two minutes to look at a flower, see a bug, chase a Smudge chasing a butterfly, draw chalk pics for her only to discover that while I was on my hands and knees drawing on the sidewalk, she dropped the chalk and went to smell the flowers. Up down, up down, round and round and round we went. Puff, pant, gasp!
She was a good girl though and stayed on the grass so I didn't have to worry about her venturing out onto the road. She investigated the rocks bordering the flower beds, dug in the dirt and touched all the flowers.
When I was taking this picture I heard her saying "Hello flowers, how are you today?" I thought that was so cute I didn't notice that she was giving this particular tulip...
a more than gentle tug...
and it ended up coming off in her hand.
I was surprised to see, when I put the camera down, that she had the tulip in her hand. Sigh! Oh well, she walked around with that flower for the longest time, talking to it, touching it, smelling it, and singing into it.