Naomi's New Best Friend!

At the beginning of this month we were really excited to welcome back Auntie Rachel for her second visit to us in Coshocton. She is Jenny's longest standing friend and once again she left her hubby and kids to stay with us for a week!

We took little trips out to Roscoe village and Amish Country. We baked for and went to our last MOPS meeting. Abigail enjoyed baking with Auntie Rachel instead of her mummy for a change ... and of course taking a few taste tests along the way!

One evening we went shooting with a couple of girlie friends here. It was an early birthday treat for Jenny and lots of fun. Abigail went to play with a friend while Mark and Naomi came along ... mostly to be amused at the facial expressions of all four women as the guns got more and more powerful! It's not everyone's thing ... it may even be perceived as shocking behaviour by some of you reading this. It definitely was a cultural highlight though and a great way to celebrate a birthday!

On the Saturday that Rachel was here, Jenny and Abigail disappeared for a couple of hours to a princess party to celebrate Bri's 4th birthday (one of Abigail's best buddies). On arrival, all the little girls got fitted out with tiara's and tutu's, which they got to decorate with sparkly gems. It was a fun afternoon

Abigail loved the tutu from her party so much that the following day she decided she was going to wear it over her jeans and snow boots when we took a trip to the zoo! She even chose to have her face painted in colours to match it.

We had lots of fun together at the zoo (enjoying the 'free' entry that our annual pass allows) ... seeing the animals and being goofy too. It seems we took more photos of the goofiness than of the animals! 

Rachel tried a North American delicacy that she'd never had before ... funnel cake. It is deep fried batter covered in powdered sugar. Yes, very healthy. As you can see it went down really well with all three girls below.

Over the week, Rachel became Naomi's new best friend. She was a bit wary at the start, as she is with lots of people but over the course of the week, Naomi definitely warmed to her. In the last few days she would choose to go to Rachel instead of us and now when Naomi sees photo's of Rachel, she gets very vocal and starts flapping her arms all over the place!

We had a great week together and had a chance to catch up on everything face-to-face rather than through sporadic emails and phone calls. On Rachel's final day, although her flight back to the UK wasn't until the evening, Mark took a day off, so she and Jenny could have a girlie day of shopping and restaurants in Columbus, minus munchkins. A perfect ending to her time here. (Mark was totally shattered when Jenny got home that day though, after going solo with both the littlest girls from 10am til 6.30pm ... his longest stint to date!)