Along with all sorts of other childish delights, Smeeks — the cool new candy store in central Phoenix — features a photo booth. The girls and I took advantage Saturday. (We’ll have to go back and figure out where the camera lens is. Whoops.)

We also shopped for fondant (turns out you can buy it pre-made — phew!) and later this week we’ll be searching for our inner “Cake Boss”. (If you haven’t seen it on TLC, it’s a must-view — in our house, anyway. Comes on just after “Jon and Kate Plus 8,” which I swear I’m going to stop watching.)

And I spent a great deal of time shoving stuff in Rubbermaid containers and finding places to shove them. We swam, Annabelle had a playdate, Ray took the girls to Chuck E. Cheese while I saw “Julie and Julia”.  Busy, busy.

It won’t surprise you, then, to learn that at, oh, I’d say approximately 8:10 this morning (about 20 minutes before we absolutely-positively-otherwise-we’ll-get-late-slips have to get out the door) Annabelle announced, in a panic, that she had not done her homework.

She praticed piano while I showered then challenged Sophie to put her shoes and socks on before I could get dressed (she won!), then remarkably, Annabelle made it through all 9 letters of her name, decorating each on a page provided by the teacher. Phew.

We didn’t get the 20 minutes of reading homework in, but tomorrow’s another day.

“Hey, she’s 5 and I’m 4 and I’m bigger than her!” Neve commented, not at all unkindly.

Yes, I thought to myself, and in every way: Neve is an adorable, precocious little girl (little, though she probably DOES stand a head taller than Annabelle, as well) and Sophie’s blind date for the morning, yesterday, during the Great Play Date Experiment.

Although I’m surrounded with little girls on many days, someone I manage to forget how advanced a typical 4 or 5 year old girl can be. Neve could hold her own at happy hour, any day.

“You ARE bigger!” I said to Neve. “Sophie’s pretty short.”

That was the only difference Neve noted about Sophie, at least, the only one l I heard. They did have different likes and dislikes: Neve wanted to play Wii, while Sophie — though glad to try bowling — was still more interested in an old Elmo puzzle she found in Erin’s den.

I don’t know how to spell Neve, so I’m guessing — and I chose this spelling since it echoes “Eve”. Sophie got all excited when I told her we were going to Neve’s house. “Eve! Eve! WALL-E!” she said.

WALL-E (and his girlfriend, or girl ‘bot, Eve) made a big impression on Sophie. Me too. Definitely my favorite movie of the summer. Okay the only one I’ve seen, but still.

I’d love to tell you that like WALL-E and Eve, Neve took Sophie by the hand, into her world, and showed her around, fascinating her, rendering the two inseparable.

Not quite. I’m not sure Sophie would follow Neve into outer space — or vice versa – but have you ever seen a first play date like that? I would have been creeped out.

This date was darn good: The girls did disappear into the back of the house for a good five minutes at a time. Erin made them a tea party with petit fours and strawberries (she even cut the tops off, something I have to admit I almost never do, bad mom) and juice boxes.

We grown ups sat on the couch and drank coffee and talked grown up talk in between fielding the many requests that come from two little girls playing a room away from their moms, and Erin explained that her favorite friend’s family, growing up, included a little girl with Down syndrome.

“We loved Becky,” Erin said. “That was just normal for us.”

We agreed the next play date will be at my house (I hope the therapists forgive me, that’s not part of the “rules” here) and I knew the morning was a success when I couldn’t drag Sophie out the door with the true news that we were headed next to a birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese.

(And if you don’t believe me about Sophie and CEC, read this:

http://www.austinmama.com/badmomsix.htm

and this:

http://www.austinmama.com/badmomeight.htm)