Princess Riley

Riley's passion for pretend play has recently evolved into full on obsession with all things princess.  Her favorite princesses are Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Belle and Snow White and we usually read each of their stories at least once a day.  On any given day, she is any one of these 4 princesses and if we make the mistake of calling her Riley she will correct us saying "No Mommy, I'm Belle."

 

Having listened to her princess stories and songs on CD and watched the movies, she has memorized most of the songs and loves to waltz around the house singing.  Our little princess doesn't usually want her performance recorded, so the only video I've gotten so far is a brief rendition of Princess Aurora signing "Once Upon a Dream". 

She can also very accurately recite lines from the books and movie, particularly Beauty and the Beast.  She will pretend to be Belle and spin around with a book on her hand and sing "there must be more than this Provincial life" and sometimes she likes for us to role play with her. 

Right now, she has 2 dresses that are suitable princess attire, one is the her Easter dress and the other is a butterfly princess costume that her Grandma and Grandpa gave her. She also has a pair of silver ballet flats that she refers to as her glass slippers.

Who doesn't love a princess dress that can slip on over anything you're wearing? 

 

Our sleeping beauty, sound asleep in the middle of reading Beauty and the Beast

And of course, in this house Bella is never exempt from humiliation. 

Spring Fever

We have had a few really beautiful days over the past couple of weeks that are starting to make me ache for Spring. While we haven't had much snow this year, it has been bitterly cold so on the few emerging warm days we have been trying to take full advantage.

Riley loves going to the library and we love that our new house has a library close enough to walk to or ride her bike and lucky for Riley there is a playground on the way too. 

One day she decided that it was way too nice to stay inside so she said "Mommy, I think I will read outside today".  She then went to her room to pick out a book and came to sit out in the sunshine and read.

 

Last week, we met up with some friends for a playdate with the animals at the zoo.  Riley loves the zoo and it was even better with her friends James and Audrina.   

This was pretty much the view that we got of our toddlers for most of the afternoon. 

Riley and James riding the carousel.  Neither one wanted to hop up on an animal so they sat together on a bench and were actually having more fun than they looked like in pictures.

Topping off our zoo trip with a big bowl of ice cream, perfect!