Pajama Ride!

Tonight, in honor of the Jeep being in running condition, we continued a little family tradition we started while we still lived in sunny southern California-- the pajama ride. I don't take credit for this little idea as I first heard about it from Sheri Torelli, a MOPS speaker, whom I've heard speak (twice) on "the importance of mommy." The one thing that I still remember from those talks is her telling about taking her kids on PJ Rides: she and her husband, every once in awhile, would get the kids out of bed, right after tucking them in, yelling, "PJ ride! PJ ride!" and whisk them off for some mystery treat or experience.

Well, in our family, the Jeep plays a very important part of the Pajama Ride, for the very first time we did a Pajama Ride with the kiddos, we piled them in the Jeep and pretended we didn't know where it was taking us! Papa had great fun driving all over the condo complex and the Henry's parking lot until we finally stopped in front of the frozen yogurt place.

So tonight, it seemed as if the stars aligned for a Pajama Ride: the Jeep was running, the kiddos had a great day (and went to bed without fussing), and it was warm enough that I didn't have to worry about them freezing to death if I took them out in their PJs-- I have to think about these things now that we live in Oregon, you know.

As soon as we got into the Jeep, Mugger (rubbing sleep out of his eyes!) asked, "So where is the Jeep taking us?" We, of course, had to continue the game and pretend that we were as surprised as they were when we ended up downtown for gelato.

Yes, it was a busy day, but a good one. The kiddos both couldn't stop at 3 when we asked them to list the 3 good things of their day during their bedtime snuggles...