I am so thankful for Serenity =) She's growing into an amazing, kind, helpful girl. We've played the thankful game all month, and two of my favorites of her answers so far has been, "I'm thankful for the new baby" (She kisses and hugs the baby in my tummy daily, and talks to her to say her big sister is excited to see her.) The other is "I'm thankful Donovan plays kitties with me. Donovan is always up to pretending to be a cat with sister. Those two are such good friends right now, and come up with all sorts of fun and interesting games together. I just love it! Here are some of our activities for November:
11/3
Once upon a time there was a beautiful princess. She made a golden blanket, and she loved it so much she held it and snuggled it all the time. She had a wonderful horse, and when she rode the horse she sat upon the magic golden blanket and it was a perfect saddle. She would gallop across the land on her horse. When she came to a river, the golden blanket would change to a boat that would carry her and her horse across. The horse's name was Buttercup.
Donovan's response to this story was: "Once upon a time, there was a beautiful dinosaur. ROAR!!!!!"
Today we had a little playtime with just the two of us while Daddy and Donovan were at a soccer game. We played the brave princess and her brave knight. It was so much fun! We had buckets filled with magic or fire, and we used them appropriately depending on our enemy. We turned a baby dragon to a friend with our magic, and then he filled the buckets with fire for us. Twilight Sparkle provided the magic. We tamed a lion and turned him into our defender. We planted a garden to feed our people. When I needed to sit on the couch for a minute, Serenity danced and sang a song about our adventures and quests. Love her!
11/20
"We can't always replace it if we make a mistake, but we can always figure out a way to deal with it." How did you know this? "I know it in my heart."
"Hush Mama, It's all right. Just breathe." (I was saying, Oh, I meant to go to Target. It's not too late. But it's dark... I think I'll take her advice =) It's so funny when kids say things you know they heard from you.
11/25
We played the thankful game, and of all the things she mentioned the one that stuck with me the most is, "I am thankful that Donovan plays kitties with me." I love that they enjoy playing with each other so much. I know they probably won't always, but every day that they are best friends thrills me. =)
Serenity has played a lot of Civilization with her Daddy this month. She knows more about the game than I do now =)
Eric has added to the nightly bedtime routine. He has always sung songs, but lately the kids have been requesting him to make up songs. He has a few favorites that they request repeatedly, like Ponies in Ponyville and Dinosaurs Rock, but sometimes they just say, a car song or a faerie song and he just sings it =) (Dinosaurs rock, dinosaurs roll, dinosaurs go, out for a stroll. =)
Tina's Visit: Colen and Tina came to see us! We had such a great time, and the kids are still asking if the planes they see overhead are Colen and Tina's =) They played lots of games of course. The adults got to play a couple of excellent sessions of dnd and lots of our Lord of the Rings card game. Serenity loved playing Ticket to Ride with them, (they didn't keep score, it was just fun!) Donovan even got Colen to play Candyland with him. =) They also went hiking at TurkeyMountain.
Christmas Lights in Peach Trees: I had planned to do this all last winter, but never got around to it. When walking around Target started to give me contractions, I decided I'd better put something up or we might not have Christmas decorations at all! I know this is silly as there's still three weeks to go, but nesting mothers cannot always be reasonable. The kids love the trees! They even asked to have a picnic under them that evening so they could enjoy the lights, and the weather was pretty enough that we did! We very carefully spread ornaments out all over the two trees. The next day they played outside for two hours, and when I went out to check on them after cleaning the kitchen, I discovered they'd taken every ornament they could reach and put them all onto one spectacular branch that Donovan could reach =) Too fun!