Ahh, A Successful Day of Parenting...

So I usually think of myself as a pretty good parent. I love and adore my kids with a fiery passion and even with my full-time job, still feel like I make a massive effort to put my parenting as a major priority - structuring my day around how I can get them out of doors to play, how I can work in a playdate with friends, trying as much as I can to limit the TV-babysitting to as much of a minimum as I can at all times (which I fail at quite a bit, but which I also really, really try to do!!!).

Today was a beautiful day of spending an amazing amount of time really, really playing and enjoying my babies. Lately, as Reese is speeding towards the terrifying time where I have to send her to kindergarten at public school, (a system of which I have never personally had any sort of issue with until faced with the reality of sending my precious baby there... now I feel like I'm losing her to "the world" - judge me if you must. But I spent each and every year and school day of my life in a school where we prayed, read our Bibles, learned Bible stories and talked about Jesus... EVERY DAY. Openly. In public and without any opposition or "tolerance" issues) I realize how sweet, special, and priveleged I feel that my sweet little girl really, actually wants nothing more than my unbridled affection, attention, company and love. A few hours of playing Barbies and coloring when what I really want to do is read Pioneer Woman's story of her romance to Marlboro Man and his chaps, has now started to hold new meaning for me. And in actuality, playing with Barbies actually goes by remarkably fast, and truthfully, I don't have to create any imaginary scenarios because Reese really just tells me exactly how the whole thing will go. I basically just have to repeat after her. =)

So today we started off, as we do almost every Saturday, with daddy's pancake breakfast, cheesy eggs and sausage! Niles has become sort of a pancake aficionado. He tries to get creative - red velvet pancakes, pumpkin pancakes, strawberry/banana pancakes, chocolate, etc - but really, Reese and I get most excited over the basic chocolate chip (butterscotch chips for me!) variety, much to his Food Network-loving chagrin. Today was basic chocolate. Reese had a minor fit, as there were no additional chocolate chips... but we moved past it. She ate and then immediately resigned herself to the couch for a round of Barbie. Since this week was Reese's big old 5th birthday bash, we were kindly bestowed about 10 new Barbies, along with a Barbie pool, Barbie equestrian set complete with horse, Barbie "glam purse" complete with a mock iPhone with fake apps, and several other Barbie sets I can't even remember. Our big focus today was on the Barbie/horse combo. She also got a few My Little Ponies. So, as most horses do, her large Barbie horse laid eggs, which hatched little My Little Pony babies. Interesting... But I digress...

I totally played Barbie/horse for at least a good 45 minutes or so I believe, before we moved onto some reading of her new books she also received this week, and then after Niles left, we did science experiments!! One of her classmates gave her a science kit for her birthday, and we put it to good use. It was actually really fun!! We made "lava", and combined different sets of citric acid and baking soda along with colored tablets, etc. while playing Taylor Swift radio on Pandora all morning! I can honestly say that I enjoyed every moment of play time with my precious girl.

We had a great morning completely absent of all television, so I took the kiddos to the library and let Reese pick out like 10 movies, tons of books and she played on the computer forever while I ran after my son who was adamant on climbing onto every chair available, pounding on every vacant keyboard, pushing his stroller aimlessly into walls, cabinets and tables, screaming (really cutely) every time I removed him, and raced as quickly as possible away from me as soon as he saw me coming. Oh wow. He's adorable. Seriously though, he was exhausting me. Completely. But when I try to get upset with him, he stops, looks at me with the cutest most mischievous little look and I melt into a little puddle which I'm sure he would promptly jump in the middle of if he weren't taking off running in the opposite direction.

After the library, Cam took a great nap, and Reese and I did her schoolwork, read books, and jumped on the trampoline until dinner time.

I sincerely, most genuinely, fully and completely am in love with my children. I cannot even imagine my life without those two little beautiful babies.

Cannot.

And thanks to the HEAVENS, will never have to.

My. Kids. Are. Awesome.

Jealous?!?!  =))