Our new "Clab Hose"

** UPDATE: I took Neighbor Girl to the library with us this afternoon and she said, "Liz, you're really nice. And I like your shirt." She might have been just sucking up after what happened this afternoon, but it did make me feel like I did the right thing instead of scolding her. With as much time as she spends here, I hope I can be a positive influence on her. Oh, kids. :)

Original Post:

Little B got a new armoir from R+M this weekend and it was the perfect size to build a little fort! Or a castle. Or a club house. It changes frequently. :)

So yesterday with a cleaver and a little duct tape, I hacked away at this box for the kids to play in. It's a little ghetto, but way cute. They played out there for almost 5 hours straight. It's nice to know that if we ever become homeless, I'll be able to provide us adequate shelter!

But today, laughter turned into tears. I let her play outside with Neighbor Girl and Friend, but totally spied on them the whole time to make sure everyone was playing nicely together. Turns out they weren't. For some reason, the girl's claimed the playhouse as their own home and Reese's home was in "the cage" in the backyard behind all the outside toys. She seemed a little sad, but was tolerating it so I didn't say anything. They were playing "let's pretend you are [......] and I'm [.....] okay now it's two hours later and we [......]" and so on.

Then I noticed that they were trying to "lock" Reese out of the house by putting up their shoes in front of the door so that she couldn't get in. Then Neighbor Girl starts YELLING at Reese, telling her to "get me that shoe", "gosh, she never listens" and "now go home!"

(I took a picture of it to show Wade. Ha! strange I know.)

I about lost it.

Reese slowly turned around and started running toward the house bawling, so sad. I came outside and just hugged her while she cried. Having just saw what happened, I told her to go inside for a minute while I talked to Neighbor Girl. Instead of yelling at her (like I wanted to) I put on my teacher hat and asked her what happened and how important it was to not leave anyone out, especially when your at someone else's house. After that they all played well together and seemed to have fun. But it seriously made me so thankful that I get to stay at home w/ my kids to teach them those little lessons on a daily basis.

But MAN was it hard not to just CLOCK this little girl for making my child cry. Ahem.