Girls' Night

Ah, Friday night in the Swanny house. If I weren't pushing 30, I'd lament the fact that it usually means a night spent in, eating left-overs (or mac and cheese) playing with my kiddo and watching What Not to Wear in my sweats after she's in bed. As Swanny usually works on Friday evenings, Peanut and I have come to look forward to our "Girls' Nights" at the end of the week. We spice it up a little, throwing in a trip to the store, a visit to the river to feed the ducks or dinner at the restaurant with Baby Bubba and his mommy. Tonight, however, after a delicious dinner of, wait for it, left-over mac and cheese :) Peanut and I headed outside for some serious fun in the backyard.

Fall is upon us and as usual the large tree in our backyard has shed most of its leaves weeks before any of the "normal" trees will. Peanut was excited about the idea of making a great big pile to jump in. Although she's only 2 1/2, she bossed me like a pro, telling me just what needed to happen for this process. First, as she demonstrates below, you use the rake to fashion the perfect leaf pile:

After the pile is assembled, you back all the way up to the neighbor's fence.

Then you run, full steam ahead and launch yourself for the pile:



You then dust off your hands, wave to mom so she can get a good picture and reapeat until mom says the bugs are too bad and it's time to go in.
The leaves were a blast.....it's going to be a fun fall.

After the leaf fun, Girls' Night continued indoors. Peanut, always modeling what she hears people saying to her, has begun questioning me about what I do each day at work. It's eerily similar to the drill we go through at dinner when I find out every last detail about her day at school including songs sung, books read and who got put in time-out for what. In explaining that some of my kids at school made an Indian Corn project with me this week, Peanut was delighted when I offered to bring it home so she could make one too. I figure, she's the perfect age to enjoy the things I do at school, why not share it with her! So down we sat with scissors, glue, construction paper and tissue paper to begin her project.

At least tonight she called it Indian Corn....all week she's been arguing with Swanny that it's an Acorn--she couldn't be told differently. Reminds me of that shirt Swanny used to have (and could still use....and share with his offspring) that said, "You can always tell a Swede, but you can't tell him much." I'd pay a handsome price to find a shirt like that for him and a matching one for Peanut....

Anyway, Girls' Night was a ton of fun for Peanut and me. A fun way to kick off a nice weekend together. I hope you all enjoy yours too!!!