The Walk and the Tent

Today was the day away from home. I made plans with my friends Kate and William today (you'll hear more about them later.) The girls and I went down to their place and while we were hanging out, Kate and I decided to take all four kids (Beautiful G, at 5, was the oldest. The youngest was 9 months) and walk down to the store. We did take the double stroller (thank goodness!) but the walk, OH MY GOODNESS!

They lived farther from the store than I thought plus the sun finally made it's appearance while we were gone. We walked for 2 hours! By the time we got back, the only kid who hadn't ridden in the stroller was Beautiful G, mostly because she was too big. The good thing was that Kate and I got to talk during the walk. I haven't talked to her like that for awhile, mostly due to scheduling conflicts. Plus, I convinced her into using coupons (when you start using coupon math, it's hard for people not to be convinced, I've found)

After our very long walk, we headed down to my mom's house. A few weeks ago she bought a Gigatent Fantasy Palace Play Tent on woot (the link here is for Amazon, if you want to see what it looks like or buy one for your kids). It finally came earlier this week and we wanted to show it to the girls. Since the walk took longer than we thought and Dave got off work earlier than he planned, he and my mom got the tent up before we got there. They were sitting in the backyard, with the tent, when we got there and the girls took to it immediately. The girls went from exhausted to full blown run in no time flat!

They loved the tent and we learned just how sturdy it was when Beautiful G fell into it (popped right back up no problem.) Mom let the girls take some of the toys out to the tent too, so they were enjoying playing with their toys in it. The walkway in the middle was shorter than my girls, so we could watch the "wave" when Sunshine walked through it.

Eventually the weather started getting chilly and grey, so Dave put the tent away and the girls came inside to play and have Grandma read to them. Among other things, they read The Cat in the Hat Comes Back (Beginner Books(R)) and Beautiful G read several words from the book herself. While I understand she's supposed to learn to read, it's quite something to hear your child read words from a book you read as a child. Talk about a tear jerker!

Honestly, we had an awesome day, one I wouldn't trade for anything. It's days like this that make me so glad to be a mom.