Dirt Road Adventures and Christmas in February

Riley Cate had been so sick and stuck in the house with not much to do, so the first day she felt good, we took advantage of it! Mia Beth, on the other hand, was with Papa Joe and Mamee with some tummy issues of her own, but they went away quickly, thank goodness!

Anyway, after a morning nap, we decided to take a walk down the dirt road next to our house. She had the best time drawing in the dirt with a stick and having me draw pictures of Daddy talking to dragons. We found rocks and smelled flowers and raccoon tracks and had so much fun! We even walked much further than we ever have and made a new friend, an older man named Mr. Morris. He lives in a beautiful cottage with his wife and the whole place is surrounded by daffodils right now. AND he has an Airstream--my favorite camper in the world! Just knowing I can go look at it anytime I want makes me sooooo happy! After a nice visit during which he invited us to explore the trails on their 20 acres anytime we wanted, we decided to head back to the house to tell Daddy bye-bye before he went to work to call THREE games on the radio!

In a burst of brilliant parenting (ha! yeah.), I remembered a gingerbread house kit that I'd bought on sale at Wal-Mart. Surely this low-key activity would beat the 13th viewing of the Sound of Music (known by Riley Cate as "Mahwia"). Ya'll she LOVED it! I never called the decorations "candy" because I didn't want to take a chance on seeing it again and she never tried to eat any of it! Basically, she would tell me where to put the icing and she or her "weopard" would stick a piece of candy on. We did this for almost an hour! It was awesome!

Below: Riley Cate held the candy to leopard's hand and put it on the icing. It was too cute!

Cakie, leopard and the finished project...My only real contribution is the Mickey Mouse that she asked me to put above the door. A child after my own heart!

A close-up of our work of art!