Pillow Fort Fun with Pop Secret!

One of Lily's favorite activities is building pillow forts!  Sometimes they're elaborate, sometimes they're simple, but rest assured, they are her favorite!   When you sleep in the bottom bunk, pillow forts are pretty much a daily occurrence, but the excitement for Lily never wanes! That's one of my favorite things about her...she's just as excited the 75th time as she was the first. 

This fort was the first time she got Violet up into her bed with her. "I'll 'pre-tect' her, Mama!"

Our next pillow fort is going to have lights, she said! Good thing I have some battery powered snowflake lights, we'll work into it this weekend. 

One of Violet's favorite activities is snacking. You think I'm kidding, but that baby loves to snack!

Combining the two is perfect for my girls on a snowy afternoon!  Mind you, we didn't get dumped on like further East, but we did get 6 inches of snow and that's plenty good for me! What better way to spend a cold wintry afternoon having some Pop Secret popcorn and hanging out in a pillow fort?! #PopSecretForts couldn't have picked a better time to have a fun, memorable promotion! 

The girls woke up from their afternoon nap and we decided we'd make an easy fort upstairs in the livingroom just to snack and lounge in.  Perfection for both of them!  Andrew decided he'd help out too even though this one would just be for the girls, he wanted to help with the construction then hang out on the floor for some snacks with his baby sister.  He's such a good big brother! He even picked out the snowman bowls for our snowy afternoon popcorn snack. 

Violet was excited to have her snack as always and thrilled to be inside the fort! I love the joy that comes from the simplest things and just exudes from her!

Peeking at her big brother is the cutest ever!

Violet decided it was time for her to run around again, so Lily climbed in to spend some time lounging, snacking, and playing on the iPad.

I love these memories made with my kids and even when it's a simple pillow fort, I know I will never forget, even if they are too little to remember.

Pop Secret knows that fun, like popcorn, is better when it’s shared. Send Pop Secret your pillow fort stories and pictures on Facebook. You can upload them right to the Pop Secret timeline and tag them #PopSecretForts. They might just share a little something back!

Be sure to download a $1 coupon for your next bag while you're there uploading your own #PopSecretForts ... you just may be a winner of a Pop Secret surprise pack!


Disclosure: 
Thank you to Pop Secret for sponsoring today’s post and inspiring us to building a pillow fort!

The Art of Imitation

We've reached the point in toddlerhood where  (yes, I officially say toddler now that she's actually toddling) EVERYTHING has the potential of being repeated by Lily and some already has started. Cue the watching your language, huz. ;)

My not-so-little guy who approaching his 12th birthday and is filled with emotions all over the place experienced this last week.  He is in the place where everything his parents ask him to do, we get an exasperated sigh in response. I asked him to do something.... As soon as he finished his big sigh, his baby sister responded with the same exact noise.  He turned his head sharply to look at me with wide-eyes.  I just said, "That's exactly what we've been talking about regarding being a role model. She looks up to you and will do and try to do everything you do. Both the good and the bad."  Actually, her reaction was the kick in the butt to nip his it's-the-end-of-the-world-that-you've-asked-me-to-do-anything reactions.  Score one for Lily.  So, yeah the tween and the baby teaching each other. 

My husband is a loud nose blower. He's a lot of wonderful things.  This is not one of them.

Like, you can't hear someone talk when he blows his nose, loud. 

Like, it scares Lily loud. She who doesn't like the vacuum cleaner, hair dryer, handmixer, lawnmower, drill sounds and screams and cries, reacts the same to her daddy blowing his nose.  Until recently.

KaBoom!

Friday night started off with a bang.  Literally.

Lily and I were hanging out in my bed early evening watching Yo Gabba Gabba. I was tired and wanted to stretch out and she was in a crankypants, post afternoon nap, too early for bed witching hour mood.  Daddy came in to talk with us and picked her up, played with her like they normally do--the ka-booming her on to the bed that she loves. She makes "boy" noises to get him to play and do it.  "Boy noises" like crashing sounds. It's hysterical.

Welp, when they were done, he headed upstairs and she was still in hyper mode and decided to try to kaboom herself.  Unfortunately she did it too quickly and I was unprepared. She stood up on the bed and as I reached to grab her, she kaboomed (trying to fall onto her bum on the bed) herself right off the bed onto the floor, missing the bed entirely.  I'm sure it was super scary to fall that far after thinking she was going to just kaboom onto her butt on the bed!  She's fallen off the bed before, sadly. :(

In her kaboom all the way to the floor, she hit her face near her eye on the corner of the nightstand!  (I will say we are SO lucky that she missed her eye because it was soooo close to her actual eye & the corner is sharp.)  That makes my stomach hurt thinking about it even now. :(

There were a lot of tears, that scary beginning of a scream where they hold their breath, and a lot of loud crying.  It was pretty awful.  In addition to the screaming and crying from her fall, there was much more because of us trying to put ice on her face.  She was NOT happy about that at all.  So, after the sobbing and trying to catch her breath was done, she just wanted to sit and watch her show.

It did bruise a little bit, but I was sure she was going to have a terrible black eye and we were SOOOO lucky it didn't turn super black and blue.  Just a slight bruise the next morning.

She's one tough little girl.