Back in SC- August 4-7.

Back at home, we worked to fit in a summer of South Carolina fun into two weeks, while simultaneously recovering from 6 weeks of traveling.  (Thanks for having us, by the way, Ohio people.)

Jo rediscovered her love of her huge bin of fuse beads and made this very accurate representation of herself.  (You know, the purple hair and big nose.)

She's also working on writing her own name.

Bea was happy to be back in her little bassinet, where she could push her face up against the side to sooth herself to sleep.

I hired Katie to water my garden occasionally while we were gone.  My potatoes in a bucket where mildly successful in that we harvested enough to garnish a few plates of papri chaat.

I've been trying to convince Brandon to let me draw eyebrows on Beatrice.  He did not agree with my plan.  So I photoshopped them on, with hilarious results.

  

Seriously, how cute is this little girl?  Especially in her little Clemson booties that Miss Shannon made her.

We find that if June is overtired, she has a night terror or sleep walks.  Usually we end up bringing her downstairs to let her sit with us until she's ready to go back to bed.  Poor little thing.

We met up with some friends to go play on the banks of the Chattooga River and watch kayak tours launch.  I've heard a lot of scary stories about the Chattooga River and after watching Brandon and our friend, Darren try to walk across a fairly shallow and "calm" section, then try to do the same thing myself, I made the kids stay very close to the shore.  That river is not to be taken lightly.

Alas, we survived our river journey and headed to Chattooga Belle Farm to celebrate.  Besides outdoor seating and some good food, this place has some amazing views.  They are also a working farm, though we missed just about every season of fruit-picking the week we were there.

It turns out that most of our friends now only have girls.  And their friends only have girls.  And none of them are above the age of 6.  Thanks for being a good sport, Henry.

 Most importantly, Henry and June were happy to be back with Katie and Maddie. What a bunch of goofs

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 And their reunion culminated in my very favorite June and Maddie moment- an epic improvised song about being sisters that possess the power of weather.