Girls' Day In (Giveaway!)

Yesterday one of the kids had a tantrum when I dropped them off at daycare. Normally, they're both off and playing with their friends immediately and I have to coax them back to give me a goodbye kiss. But yesterday - for whatever reason - Mia did not want to be at daycare. She kept saying, "Mommy, I want to stay home with you!"

This is only the second time ever that one of the kids has acted this way and I felt pretty horrible about it. I was only scheduled to work a half-day; it was my turn to pick up Gavin and take him to preschool. My original plan was to leave Mia at daycare and run a few errands sans kids, but after the scene at drop-off I changed my plans and scheduled in some mom-daughter time instead.

After leaving Gavin at preschool, I asked Mia what she wanted to do. She replied by saying she would like to have a tea party. I'm not sure where she got this from because tea parties aren't generally a big thing in our house. But as I'm learning, it's like some of this stuff - dressing up, playing house, and tea parties - are almost inherent in little girls. It also gave me an idea.

A few weeks ago, the lovely people at Cascades sent me My Pretty Playhouse to review. Yesterday afternoon seemed to be the perfect opportunity to set it up so it could host our first-ever Mother/Daughter tea party.

Mia was so excited when she saw it, she could barely contain herself. I tried to put it together as fast as I could, and thankfully it didn't take much time at all. The roof was the only section where I should have followed the instructions to have two people set it up, so for our tea party it was just kind of 'sitting' on the walls. When Murray got home from work later that night we were able to attach the roof with very little trouble at all.


And wow, was it ever a hit! Mia served us both tea and bread. We hung out inside the playhouse (which doesn't take up much space at all in our living room), and really enjoyed our time together. It was sad when we had to leave to go get her brother from school.

I should have realized that the fun was just beginning. When Gavin arrived home and saw that we had set up the playhouse, he exclaimed, "This is the most awesome day ever!" and the two of them have spent the better part of the past two days decorating "their" house.

They're talking about sleeping in it tonight, and have set it up with blankets and pillows.

It even has an address: 28 Butterfly Street.

 

My Pretty Playhouse is made of 100% recycled cardboard, which makes it very easy to assemble and move around inside. By far the best part is that the kids can explore their creativity by colouring it and decorating it however they please.  And don't let the "pretty" name fool you: this playhouse is just as fun for boys as it is for girls.

We did have one incident this morning where Gavin had coloured the door handles yellow and then Mia decided she preferred them red. There were tears, and eventually a compromise where Gavin is responsible for the look of the exterior and Mia will be the interior decorator. So far so good.

Now I want to share the fun with you. Cascades has been generous enough to offer one My Pretty Playhouse for me to giveaway to one of my readers. Just visit Cascades to see all of the offerings in their boutique and then come back and leave your name in the comments. I will do a random draw on November 1, so be sure to get your name in by midnight October 31 (if you can see through the candy haze).

If you aren't fortunate enough to win the giveaway and would like to purchase your own directly from Cascades, you should know that you'll be supporting a great cause, as Cascades donates $2 from every sale of a My Pretty Playhouse to Habitat for Humanity. Just one more thing to love about it.