How a four year old packs for vacation

Saturday morning brought grey, windless skies and rain. Rain that fell straight from the skies. It was such an eerie day. The true calm before the storm. The girls were awake well before seven o'clock so I decided to take advantage of the time and began laundry and cleaning before packing.

Rich and I tend to split packing duties. I pack the girls' clothes and shoes while Rich handles the food and van entertainment. For this trip, he also packed the sheets, blankets and towels. I cannot imagine having to pack all of that by myself.

My attempts at cleaning are usually failures in that I am interrupted so many times, I usually just give up. However, on this particular morning, time seemed to stand still and I was able to clean and clean and clean and finish about 17 loads of laundry. (Sadly, there were still 17 more loads waiting.)

I also had time to spend with the girls.

Emily proudly showed off her new drawings.

That's everyone waiting to go into school. She's the one at the very end with a back pony hairstyle.

Sure, Anna. I'll take a picture of you!

More drawings from Emily.

Quietly watching television from Mommy's bed.

Are these coming back into style?

I helped Allie practice her cartwheels.

Dress up!

Piling animals onto Mommy's bed.

And making smooshy faces.

When I walked inside the house Friday night, I found some bags sitting by the door. Grammy informed me that Emily had packed.

I looked through the bags and wondered if she had simply thrown a bunch of toys into the bags. Nope. She actually put thought into what items she packed. For example, I was told that Little Lion likes milk in the morning so she made sure to bring his bottle.

Throughout the day on Saturday, Emily kept adding to the pile. And I photographed it.

I think it's safe to say that Anna and Emily are opposites in the packing department. Here's Anna with her necessities.