A Rare Warm Day

It rained all day yesterday and is supposed to rain tomorrow, so when the sun came out this afternoon, I grabbed my kids and out we went. It felt so good to play outside. We played in the yard for a while and then decided we needed more space, so we headed over to the playground nearby. We rode bikes and played baseball and spun on the merry-go-round. Bella has entered the phase where she will only wear a dress or skirt, regardless of the weather or activity. So, she was wearing a pretty spring dress when it was time to go outside. Her compromise with the cooler weather was this darling ensemble:


I think the renaissance princess crown from her Halloween costume just makes the outfit, don't you? What's great about Isabella is that although she's a diva and a princess, she's not too prissy to get dirty. She enjoyed the puddles and the mud pies to the fullest.




It wasn't until we'd been there a few hours and she got tired, that she realized she didn't like being wet and muddy. That's when she broke down and threw a fit of massive proportions all the way back to car where I got her cleaned up. The whole "If you don't like being wet and muddy, then you shouldn't play in water and mud" lecture was lost on her.


It was a great day, though. Benjamin hit multiple baseballs into the outfield and rode his two-wheeler bike all around the park without any help starting or stopping. Christian is on day 3 without a nap but was still pleasant and happy the whole time. Not sure what his deal is, other than he's one of my kids. (Bella went down to one short nap a day at 6 months.) Hopefully it's just a phase, though. 7 months is a bit young to stop napping, don't you think? Here's to hoping the weather forecast for tomorrow is wrong and we have another fun sunny day.

Oh, and as an afterthought, I mentioned a while ago that I played bank with my kids to help them understand money a bit better. To give you a variation on that game, I'll tell you that yesterday, Bella wanted to play bank again but Benjamin wanted to play astronaut, so we decided to combine. We pretended that we traveled from planet to planet and had to refuel at each stop at the bank, which doled out anti-matter particles in the shape of coins and dollar bills. To help Bella keep practicing her numbers, I gave her a control panel (remote control from the tv) and called out headings at each departure. "Ensign, set in a course for Jupiter, heading 2.5.9 mark 6!" Yes, I'm a trekkie. She was totally into it, though, so whatever works, right? In the end we finally reached Pluto, where we withdrew money and donated it to the "Gloomies" (Benjamin's invented name for the aliens there) so they could buy flowers and beautify their cold, dark planet. Benjamin played the President of the Gloomies and Bella and I were the ambassadors from earth who approached his complicatedly constructed throne (he used every cushion and chair in our house, it seemed) and presented our gift to his planet. Yes, at our house, Pluto is still a planet. It made for a great game. He'll find out the truth soon enough. :)