Sunday morning

Vince and Bella are running around the house right now with a long piece of yarn tied to a magic wand, and Switzerland is going nuts!  Bella has a mad case of the giggles because she is so excited, and it's the perfect sound to begin my Sunday morning....

I'm going to go back a bit and talk about the second half of yesterday, and then I will get back to today... So Vince and Bella snoozed too long for us to go to the park.  I tried to wake B-bo at 3:30, but she fell back asleep on the couch.  I gave up and sat at the other end of the couch and read my book.  I only have 30 pages to go and the series is over.  It was sooooo good though, and I don't think I'm going to see the movies because the books were graphic enough.  When Bella finally began to wake up, it took her a good while.  Meanwhile we are approaching 5 p.m. and have missed our window to go to the park.  Realizing I'm about to have a really crabby kiddo on my hands, I come up with a plan super quick.  After I relay the bad news, that we cannot go to the park today, the tears and wails of despair come immediately.  So, here was my pitch...

Bella, it is getting close to dinner time and if we go to the park now, all the kids will be heading home to eat dinner.  Remember, you said you wanted to play with some new friends, and if we wait until tomorrow it will be nice and sunny, we can have a picnic, fly your kite, play with new friends and even go on a nature walk.  If we go now, you are only going to get to play for about 30 minutes.  That will make you mad and we will have to have another talk like we are having right now.  So if we stay here, we can turn on some music, you can pick out your favorite station on Pandora, we can add more squares to your hopscotch board and take turns jumping to the music, you can pick out a board game and after we get a fire going we can play a game on your little table by the fire, then we can even roast hot dogs if you want.

She thought about it all, and decided it would be fun to stay home.  She handed me the remote for Pandora and asked to pick her station :)  It's all about giving them options, and making it feel like their idea.  We all ended up hanging out outside for another 2 hours playing hopscotch, Hi-Ho Cheerio by the fire, a little more hammock swinging, and some snacks before heading in for bath time followed by dinner and puzzles.

The night ended with a worn out happy family.  Yea for nice weather!  Come on Spring time!

As for today, we are doing a little light cleaning before we pack up a picnic lunch and head to the park for a while.  It's going to be another beautiful day, and I can't wait to enjoy it.  Now it's time for a little breakfast <3