Since Luke and Riley (my nephew and niece) weren't able to come over on Thursday (it wouldn't have been easy with the power outage), we rescheduled and they came over today. I felt terrible because the kids had been really excited to come over on Thursday, so I said we would do something fun today.
I'm so glad Jerry was off work today--I can't imagine a day like today by myself. I have no idea how I ever had two kids 18 months apart and managed not to completely lose my mind. It's exhausting! We had a lot of fun, but I couldn't imagine doing this every day.
The kids love books, so I thought it would be fun to take them to a "real" bookstore (they are hard to find these days!) and let them pick out a book. Jerry, Eli, and I picked up the kids from their house and went down to Toledo (the closest Barnes & Noble). I hadn't been there in ages, so I was kind of surprised to see the enormous toy section--it was better than Toys R Us!
Of course, you have to walk through it to get to the kids' book section, so we naturally spent quite a bit of time there. They each picked out a "book":
Hahaha, I'm a sucker.
After that, I wanted to take Riley to Build A Bear, which is what we did with Luke for his third birthday. Jerry took Luke to look around the mall while I helped Riley "build" her bear (she ended up choosing a dog). It's so funny to see what things she picked--I wondered what was going through her mind. Normally, she loves unicorns and sparkly girly things, but she skipped over all the glittery tutus and stuff.
Isn't she SO cute? Three times, total strangers told me how cute she was!
When we came home, the kids wanted to play outside. I don't have much for young kids to do outside, but I told them we could play "pick up the sticks and put them in the fire pit", hahaha--Wednesday's storm blew a ton of sticks into our yard. Riley asked if they could swim in the neighbor's pool, and our neighbor said it was fine. I don't even own a bathing suit anymore, but Jerry got in the pool with them. Luke is taking swimming lessons and I was super impressed with his fearless swimming.
Instead of doing our usual popcorn and movie night, Jerry and Riley went to the store to pick out some ice cream and toppings and we made ice cream sundaes before watching Finding Nemo.
And now I'm spent! It's not even 10:00 PM and I'm ready for bed. Since these plans with Luke and Riley were pretty last-minute, I will try to make a heritage recipe to post tomorrow.
I can't get over how well-behaved Luke and Riley are. Riley isn't even three yet, but she was SO patient waiting her turn in the Build A Bear store. They are super polite and respectful, too.
This was a funny conversation with Luke (I texted it to Becky):
What a fun day for everyone! Loved the convo with your nephew. Your brother and sister in law are raising some great kids! Keep up the great job as an awesome aunt too!
ReplyDeleteWhat a fantastic and day Katie! They are both so cute and sound like wonderful kids. Loved reading about all the fun you four had.
ReplyDeleteI think Riley's face looks just like yours! Looks like a fun sleepover. My dad always says people should be able to "rent a kid" for a trip to the zoo or something like that, then return them haha.
ReplyDeleteYup, she's a little blonde version of Katie!
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