Giving the Gift of Experiences

My sister and I have been discussing how to give gifts of experiences to our children.  Kids get so many toys during Christmas and birthdays.  They play with them for a few days, then many break or they loose interest in them.  However, an experience is something that a child will have with them forever.  You can't take that away.  It can impact them in ways that no toy ever can.

So this year Aunt Megan gave the gift of a trip to the ice cream shop and a pedicure to Hannah.  Since Aunt Megan lives in Texas, mommy got to spend a fun Mommy/Daughter day with Hannah as part of her Christmas present.  

Today was a very special day for my littlest girl as it was her Mommy/Daughter Day.  We dropped Bekah off at school, then headed to Peet's Coffee.  My daughter got a hot cocoa with whipped cream.  We sat at a window seat and read a children's story together.  

After getting some work done at home we headed out for a wonderful day.  We went to Toy Works in Sebastopol.  Hannah had fun playing with the trains while I finished up my shopping.  (Megan, I got the best Checkers Board for Bekah for Christmas from you.)

Then we walked a few doors down to Screamin' Mimi's Ice Cream store.  Hannah got a DOUBLE ice cream cone with chocolate and vanilla ice cream.  I got mint.  Yummy!  On the way there, Hannah told me that she wanted marshmallows on top of her ice cream.  She forgot to ask when she ordered, so she went back to the server.  She asked for marshmallows all by herself.  They didn't have any, so she got sprinkles instead.  While talking to the server, Hannah looked at me and told me to go eat my ice cream so she could take care of it all on her own.  It was so cute!

I got chocolate sprinkles!!!!

Then we headed to a local nail salon.  Hannah wasn't so sure about getting her toes done.  At first she said that she would go if I would do her toes.  I said," No, the nice ladies would do our toes."  So after a long, hard choice picking out the color we settled in to our chairs.  I loved every minute of my pedicure.  It was a very new experience for Hannah.  She was super quiet and kept whispering to me.  She told me that next time she wanted my nice lady, since her lady hurt her toes a little bit with her fingernails.  The high light of her trip here was the lolly pop at the end.

Snuggling with mommy was so nice!

Cute toes!  What a fun and special day we had.  After our pedicure, we went home and had lunch while Hannah got to pick a special show to watch.  There is nothing like spending one on one time with someone you love.   Thanks for a wonderful experience Aunt Megan.  What great memories we made today!!