For Anna and Josie

Well, my kids would like to have a place to post pictures of themselves for Anna and Josie to see, so we've decided to have a blog too. Here are a few things they've done lately, on their own, and inspired by their cousins. JACK just wrote his own name, and he's helping me write this blog. This weekend we worked at the store all weekend, painting in the kitchen, and moving things around, which kept us all busy. It was a rainy weekend, but that didn't keep my kids inside. This is a picture of the two of them scooping water out of their wheelbarrow and then carrying it to the mud puddle they made. Yes, that's right, I said they made their own mud puddle. I discovered this when Jack came inside saying, "Mom, can you come turn off the hose?" They made quite a puddle next to the back porch, which they were calling their pond. If there's not enough rain to make a big enough puddle, Jack has apparently discovered how to make his own pond to stomp around in. He's a creative boy. I was trying to take a surreptitious picture of the two of them, so it's far away. I hate to interrupt when they're playing happily together. Today they built forts, inspired by their cousins. Here they are in their respective forts: About the title: My friend Lindsey calls Jackson and Caroline the Fikelings, so since I intend this blog to be mostly about them, I thought it was an appropriate title. In honor of her, here's a picture of Lindsey taken last Friday morning, reading to the Fikelings and to her daughter Marilyn (and to Marilyn's baby brother, to be born in July or August). Thanks for your witty nickname Linds!