A few weeks ago my husband and some of his buddies brewed up a batch of beer (about 20 gallons) to be divided among the four of them.
One of the guys brought his daughter along - a little girl right around Julia's age. This is the second time she's been over, so she and Julia were already well acquainted.
Long before that first play date, the little girl's father and Bill and I had been sharing stories about our respective daughters and their rather strong little personalities. We all figured the two of them would either hit it off or become mortal enemies. Fortunately for all, they hit it off. More or less.
This most recent time, Julia and "Jakey" as Julia constantly refers to the other little girl (her name is not Jakey, but it will be for this story) played together a lot, but their friendship was occasionally interrupted, as are many little girl friendships, by period of time when, as Julia told me "I'm not gonna be her best friend any more." So there were moments of silence. Times when one little girl played outside and the other one played inside.
But for the most part, they played together...dragged out all of Julia's toys and dolls together...colored with chalk in the driveway (and Jakey colored on her dad's truck with chalk, too). So it was a pretty good day. Jakey's dad also brought along Jakey's brother, who is about Alex's age, and the two of them were instant buddies. So alike. It was fun to watch them.
But anyway. Over time, part of brew day's routine has come to include muffins from Whole Foods, that one of the guys picks up on his way here...Bill and I make lunch (which, this day, was spicy fish tacos - yum) and Jakey's dad brought a 12-pack assortment from Dunkin Donuts. Alex had a glazed chocolate donut - he ate part of it and I saved the rest for later. I think Julia had a glazed one...I forget who else had what.
Anyway, the guys were outside tracking the beer's progress and playing whiffle ball (an important part of brew day, apparently)...the two little boys were watching a movie about dinosaurs downstairs...I was zesting lemons and other citrus for the beer, or doing dishes, or making guacamole for lunch - I don't remember where I was...and the girls were in the dining room.
And they were relatively quiet, and getting along nicely, and I wasn't really paying attention.
Which is probably why this happened:
That's Julia (she chose her own clothes that day. She has her father's sense of style.)...and that's her co-conspirator, "Jakey." And those are what's left of the donuts.
They were tasting them. Perhaps discussing the subtle nuances of flavor...the quality of the chocolate...texture and crumb. Not really sure.
But they both were pretty amused by the whole thing...and their faces were pretty well smeared with chocolate, too.
And here's what was left:
I especially like how they licked away most of the choclate frosting.
