A Basket

I love to watch my girls play together.

It's the sunshine to my life.

My girls have a pretty cool playroom. It's filled with a train table with an elaborate collection of Thomas the Train trains, a Dora kitchen, a puppet theater, and an impressive collection of toys we've accumulated over the past 4 years. There are puppets, puzzles, play food, and pretty much half of a Toys R US down there, but their favorite toy?

A basket and a little imagination.

They use it as a bed and put pillows and blankets and pretend that one another are the royal Queen. They pretend that it's a race car and push the other one down the hall as fast as they can. It morphs into a cave some days and a good hiding spot on other days. A platform to stand on when they win a gold metal; their (and by their, I mean mostly Riley because Raigan just follows along with her big sis) creativity never ceases to amaze me. I'm proud of their creativity and ability to think outside the basket.

"Girls, it's probably not a good idea to play with the basket on the bed, one of you could fall off."

"Can I sit on it, Mom?"

"No, I just don't want you  guys to fall down and get hurt. You could easily fall off the basket with it up there."

"Like this, Mom?"


"Yes, Riley, just like that."

"Like this, Mom?"

"Yeah, Raigan, just like that."

 (as you can see from the pictures, I was closely supervising behind a camera lens)

Good Morning!

Perfect Timing

So Riley got another Little Passports in the mail the other day. She gets so excited when she gets mail; like mother like daughter. Her little passport this month was from Japan and it couldn't have come at a better timing, as I will be in Japan next week.

Let me just say that again, I will be in Japan next week. That's so crazy. I spent most of my evening last night making treat bags for my girls for each day that I'm gone. I write little notes and printed maps and did a concept similar to Little Passports, so my girls know what city I'm in that particular day and how I will be missing them terribly. I plan to pick up some little toys and treats to put in there for them too. I hope they enjoy them and enjoy spending the week with my husband.

I plan to share my little treat bags here as soon as I'm finished with them so other mommies can use it if they ever travel away from their littles.

I love how excited my girls (and my brother in law, Mark) are about learning geography and I love that this little teaching tool makes it so fun. They talked about sushi, Children's Day, fish markets, and had an activity to help better understand the concept of the exchange between Dollars and Yen. Some of the activities I think are geared more towards older children, but Riley totally grasps the concept of the general geography and most of the items included.

Usually they give a clue as to which country is next, but this time they left it to be a mystery. I think there' s a little bit of fun not knowing totally what you're getting yourself into. At least that's what I keep telling myself, as I will be flying halfway across the world to a country where I don't speak the language and don't even know what to pack for, but it's a once in a lifetime opportunity that I just cannot pass up.

Lions Carnival

Cheerleading and football season has begun! The season opened with the annual summer Lions Carnival. The girls worked it to raise money for the season and it actually ended up being a lot of fun. We worked the drink/soda booth.

I think it was a lot of fun, because I got to work it with my sister in law and Riley had fun because she got to do it with her cousin bestie Chloe.

And of course, our littlest cheerleader of all, Raigan.

Spice Rack Bookshelf

I have seen this Ikea spice rack used as a book rack in more than one place and I went to Ikea a few months ago actually and forgot that I bought them. Then I discovered the bag they were in, in the garage the other day and asked my Hub to hang them up in Riley's room to house our library books that always seem to get lost.

This is my girl and her owl bedroom. She loves it and I love her. And she even made her own bed this particular day. That is her sister's tiny little hand there at the bottom. She loves Riley's room too.

Here is my Hub hanging the little spice racks in Riley's little reading corner at the end of her bed.

And here is the final result with our little library books.

Summer Days

The other night my sister in law was in town with her little man, Donovan. Here he is making his first appearance on my blog when he was still growing comfortably in his mama's belly. And here is his first appearance post-birth on my blog.

My mother in law was simply glowing the other night when all three of her children and all three of her grandchildren were under her roof.

His pouty little lips, chubby cheeks, and baby smell were enough to trigger a pretty severe case of the baby crazies within me, but I kept repeating the word graduation, graduation, graduation in my mind over and over. I did this to suppress any crazy ideas of even a thought of conceiving another child at any point really, and especially 5 months before graduation. Not that I couldn't get through a semester (or two) of being pregnant, because I have before, but I'd rather try not to make it harder than it needs to be.

After getting to snuggle this sweet little babe briefly it just reinforced that Raigan is more toddler less baby these days, and even though I know it's been that way for awhile, it's still a little hard to take.

Talk about hard to take, the fact that my first born is going to be in her last year of preschool this year is pretty hard to take too.

Before we know it, Donovan too will be running down the sidewalk demanding Pop Pickles, just like our little Raigan.

Raigan loved  baby Van and was so gentle with him, but she isn't hesitant to let us know though that she still is our baby though. Her faces as of late have been totally cracking me up, they are full of expression and I can't help but wonder if I make the same faces, because I can see myself in her more and more each day.

There are many reasons why I'm still so in love with my husband, but a really huge one is the way he is with children. He is so loving, gentle, paternal, and playful with not only our own children, but all children. I love this photograph of my husband playing peak a boo with his nephew and the sweet little kiss that Raigan is trying to steal in the foreground.

I'm very thankful to be spending these summer days enjoy ourselves and surrounded by love and family. We are blessed beyond measure.