Mommy & Jacey / Daddy & Londyn Day 2010

Only a little over a year delayed, we finally had another Mommy & Jacey / Daddy & Londyn day. I don't know why it was so hard to pin down a date this time around. But we declared President's Day to be the day, and off we went.

(I asked Will to let me switch the camera to auto and he took that as a personal insult and wouldn't let me. So all the photos of Jacey and me are blurry. Which is actually probably an improvement, so maybe he knew what he was doing after all.)

I gave Jacey two choices of what to do for our day. Option one was Build-A-Bear. Option two was Color Me Mine. Initially she choose Build-A-Bear, but I was afraid she was choosing that because she didn't really know what Color Me Mine was. So I asked if we could go to Color Me Mine and look around, and if she didn't see something she wanted to do there we'd go on to Build-A-Bear. (Actually, her first choice was to do both but I nixed that. Mom's pockets are only so deep.)

So we went to Color Me Mine and sure enough, as soon as she got the concept she wanted to stay. She wants to be an artist when she grows up (which is why I suggested it) and she was pretty enthralled with the whole experience. She painted a plate and I painted a rice bowl. I caught myself a few times and had to bite my tongue - I thought she was making a complete mess of her plate. But she is five after all and is going to create 5-year-old art. At the time I didn't see any rhyme or reason behind her creation, but when we went to pick it up after it had been fired all the sudden I saw her picture.

I don't know how well you can see it here, but in her plate there is a blue sky, brown dirt and a green flower in the middle. On the left is a blue bird and on the right is a bee. Me, on the other hand, can't draw a straight line and don't have the excuse of being five, so I decided to play it safe with solid colors. Not very creative but I was really only there so Jacey could be there.

After that we went to Wendy's for lunch. I gave Jacey every other option I could think of, but she insisted on Wendy's. Then we headed to Barnes & Noble to read books.

I just asked Londyn to remind me what she and Dad did for Daddy & Londyn day and she said "We woke up really early . . . and got dressed . . . and went in the car . . . I think I forgot all about the rest Mommy." So, you know, it was a memorable day for her too.

I do remember Will telling me that they went to Barnes and Noble to read books too. We didn't cross paths and we didn't know we'd both been there - we didn't share our plans for the day before we left. But apparently that's something that both our girls enjoy more than we realized. Then they went to Cafe Rio where Londyn's only request was to get her own burrito. (They usually get kid's quesadillas and a quarter or so of our burritos.) That was the first thing she shouted (Londyn only shouts) when she got home. "MOM! I GOT MY OWN BURRITO AND I ATE SOME AND I BROUGHT SOME HOME TO HAVE FOR LUNCH TOMORROW!"

After lunch they went to the store and bought a glow-in-the-dark bead kit and made bracelets and necklaces for the whole family. Londyn was pretty proud of those too. If she ever finds mine in the toy box (I don't know how it gets there) she takes it out and lovingly gives it back to me and tells me to put it with my necklaces. So I've worn it to the grocery store a couple of times and I kind of think it makes her day.

We had to cut the day a little bit short to attend a viewing for Will's uncle who passed away. But I actually think it was just about right. I love our one-on-one time and I really hope the girls want to keep this tradition going for a while. As long as they're in, I'm in.