A Day with my Bean

So there have been rumblings that there are confusions about which of my kiddos is which. So I will use their nicknames that I gave them from now on. Bean, pictured above and for the rest of this post, is my little four year old. Excuse me, I'm being informed she isn't little. Bear is my six year old tomboy the opposite of her sister. Bean will scream, like tears and all, over wearing jeans and tights will illicit the same reaction in her sister. 

Anyhoo. Bean had the day off from school since her teacher posted on facebook, yes we're being notified by FB these days, that she had the stomach flu. Needless to say I sanitized my hands A LOT. 

Determined to not be in the house all day and do something I semi planned/ went with the flow of it and took Bean out all day. 

After we dropped Bear off at school Bean and I ate breakfast. I even got 20 minutes in on the treadmill. Go me!

We watched one of my childhood favorite movies, The Princess Bride, I had a huge crush on Wesley. Drools. The awesome 80's effects and cheesyness is the best. 

OK for us anything in the 20's is fabulous. As in, if I'm running the girls around, I wear nothing more than a shirt and a fleece and I'm good. As in I smile from ear to ear when my nostrils don't freeze. So, today it was a mild 24 and perfect going out weather. Bean and I got bundled and headed for Soldotna. Soldotna has more "stuff" like stores and such. 

Their Mom put together this awesome community playground. When we pulled in even as an adult I just wanted to go run and play. Covered in snow and all. 

So apparently I was not bright enough to realize that sticking a four year old in a baby swing fully clothed in winter gear was NOT a bright idea. It took the patience of a saint, the voice of a kindergarten teacher and the strenght of Andre the Giant to get her out. She kept pleading with me to call her Papa and in my head I was about ready to call the fire department to use the jaws of life. I was proud of myself for keeping her calm, staying sharp and finally getting her out. It was both a bad/good nanny/parenting moment. I'm not even going to mention the peeing in the snow moment...

We had such a blast wooshing down icy slides, throwing snow balls and running around.

We had a picnic in the car and then went for a walk by the river. I probably didn't need to do the treadmill this morning. For, I carried a forty pound four year old through knee high snow and up 4 flights of stairs. 

She had the most amazing swim lesson ever today. I was about ready to give up hope on her ever swimming, but I was on the brink of tears as I watched her ACTUALLY swim. I was beaming from ear to ear. 

So I took her out for a cookie and chips at Subway. That's where she wanted to go. Or as she refereneced it, "the place with tomato chips where I pooed".  :P

We picked up her sister and took them to visit their Dad at his clinic.

Bean asked if we could go to the pet store and I consented. It's actually a pretty neat place. Huge rows of fish tanks and she has fun looking at all the fish. Hearing her squeals of joy were cute. 

It was finally time for home where I took full advantage of the massaging chair where we listened to Christmas music, read books and ate dinner. 

It was a long day but I had such a blast. 

Oh I suppose I forgot to mention that I got to talk to my little brother today. Always LOVE talking to friends back home. Wink Wink. :)