The Misses Lank are at home

Edith and Alice are enjoying a part-time daycare schedule this summer, three days a week together at school, two days a week at home. So far it's a break in the routine that has been fun for everyone, as we've found all sorts of new things to do with our at-home time together. Among our recommendations:

• Turn a quick coffee stop at Whole Foods into a two-hour treasure hunt for gold coins hidden behind the crackers, a royal palace decorated with bird-shaped carvings, and anything else you identify on the "treasure map" pulled from the napkin holder
  

• Learn to use a radio dial, slowly turning to find stations, then rocking out with Mommy to whatever type of music comes out of the speaker

• Set up a playhouse rescued from the curb; wash it down, decorate, name it, declare it the temporary home of a princess somewhat down on her luck, and announce that your parents are the princess's maids

• Get some potting soil and seeds, and set out half a dozen container gardens; daily check the growth of quick-sprouting sunflower, basil, and zinnia seeds; smell the peppermint plant in anticipation of using it in recipes
  

• Cut the lawn--Mom with a lawn mower, you with a pair of scissors blade-by-blade (hey, if she finds it fun...)

• Trim the driveway hedge for Mama, determining the shoots that are impinging on the driveway and clipping accordingly (she did a great job!)

• Clip peonies for your mother and put them in a vase on the dining room table
  

• Check out local outdoor statuary for its chilling-out potential

• Get in touch with your inner cheetah
  

• ...Or pretend to be a burrito

• Find videos at the library about life in Ghana and Korea, two foreign countries from which you have friends; wear the Ghanaian outfit one of those friends gave you

• ...Or color coordinate your outfit with your crib toys and chill out together on a hot afternoon
  

• Go to the bank with Daddy and open a savings account in your own name; when Daddy explains that the bank will pay you for keeping your money there, ask what the rate of return is in bank lollipops