It's a Rainy Day

It was a mildly rainy day today, a good opportunity for Leia and I to get outside in our rain gear (something we haven't done for a while). There was lots of splashing and dancing in puddles! Fun!
Eventually, we made it over to the "clubhouse" on the playground. It's really fun to sit in there during a placid rain. There Leia Rose and I read the entire Animals do the Strangest Things book. We call it one of our "Outside Books" because we only read it on the hammock or in the clubhouse. Leia adores this book. There's about 20 chapters in it, each with a different animal story/description. That just gives a bit of an idea of how long we were in there (and how long Annie napped).
After reading the camel story and laughing about how the camel can close his nose to keep sand out, Leia showed me how she could "close her nose" too.

Whenever we do this kind of rainy day play, I always put Singing in the Rain on the DVD player (on a loop, so it plays the famous song again and again). We always think of Papa and dance and sing. Here's Leia trying to copy Gene Kelly doing his special dance. Leia Rose always feels a special bond with Papa when she does this, knowing that it's one of Papa's very favorite movie scenes.
And somehow we always end up making a "Kitty Merry-Go-Round." : ) It was about at this point where Annie said the word "kitty," of course it sounded more like "kah-tay." : )
Then we put a few of Annie's balls in the umbrella, and I taught Leia a tiny bit about centrifugal force. (Mr. Volpe would be so proud!)

Leia Rose decided to do her own cooking while I was doing mine this evening. She hasn't done this for a long while, so it was fun to watch.