Are you getting tired of the Josie show yet? I know that we’ve been disproportionately showing her off here, but heck, she’s got a long way to go to catch up with all the pictures we have of Mad and Soph. And there’s that “I like you with the camera” thing too! Ok, back to the other girls…

We were all at a birthday party last weekend held at a “farm” (petting zoo with playsets). The kids hadn’t been back there since their preschool days so it was great fun for them to revisit all the animals.

Mad had never ridden the horses before, and decided she was brave enough this time to do so. This is the second time I’ve seen her with the horse love! Of course, then I was immediately distracted by her snowman socks she is wearing with her action sandals. Maybe they keep her feet cool or something!

She’s like a Chinese Dale Evans. Definitely needs a hat.

Meanwhile, elsewhere on the farm, Josie decides to tame a tetherball. She has a minor obsession with balls, so for her to find a ball on a string was just…well, I could have watched for hours (or minutes, anyway) without jumping in to help!

“Hey! Where’d it go???”

It was like a fresh surprise every time when she found it coming back to her - and of course narrowly missing her head with each return! Silly rabbit.

Among other things in the past couple of weeks, Josie turned two! We were all prepared for a traditional toddler cake-mashing with icing everywhere, but Josie actually likes eating with a fork and only got a little tiny spot of the frosting on her nose the whole time. What a disappointment. But so cute anyway!

It’s that rare time in Houston where the weather is warm but not humid, the mosquitos are still at bay and the yellow cakes of pollen have mostly blown out. That means for about 2 weeks, we all head out to spend our time outside and forget about what’s ahead of us for the rest of the summer!

Josie’s latched on to the idea of outside snacks. She’s loving the novelty of being able to stand up with her food!

And, as you can see, she’s warming up to the camera. Finally!

But then, the call of the snacks prevails. Did we mention that her favorite food is whatever is on someone ELSE’s plate?

“Hey! I thought you were going to share!”

Don’t you worry. Josie will get Soph back by pushing her right into the pool.

Ha! See? Got it back, no problem. Personally I like the necklace and sunglasses action here. She looks like she should be tooling around the city on a pearl pink Vespa.

AAARGH! Poor Josie’s legs are just a little too short still to make the tricycle go. But it’s not for lack of trying! It’ll happen soon enough - and then we’ll really have a hard time keeping up with her!

This kid’s got a million of them! Such a ham, this one. Maybe she should be a mime. Then again, it’s impossible to keep her quiet. Maybe a good ol’ circus clown, then!