Pinkalicious!

Rylee LOVES to read!! She can sit down anytime and read a book and actually enjoy it! I love this about her! I am a reader myself. Jason always laughs about the fact that I can sit down and read a novel in one afternoon if I ever get the chance. I have spent a lot of time reading to Rylee and Brock and have hoped that they would develop a love for books. Before I was married (I don't know if Jason and I were even dating yet), I worked at a local Preschool. We would send off Scholastic orders on a monthly basis and I would order a ton of books every time with the intention of saving them for my children someday. So....by the time Jason and I were married and we moved into our home, we had a whole closet full of children's books just waiting on some kiddos to read them! Now, we have a hall closet stacked full of any kind of book that the kids feel like reading/looking at anytime they want. They visit this closet at least once a day, usually more! And, it makes me more than happy!! They both love the bookstore, so it is always a good idea for something to do on a night when we are looking to get out of the house! Plus, it's cheap entertainment!!

It was no surprise that Rylee asked for books for Christmas! I got her a few books and Santa left her Book #1 of The Boxcar Children in her stocking. She also received a gift card to the bookstore from her Nana and Papa, so she was super excited! I wanted to do something a little more than just wrap up a book and give it to her, so I decided to put a little themed basket together for her. Unfortunatley, I wasn't in blogging mode at the time, so I didn't get a picture of the basket by itself!! However, it was SO much fun putting it together(I think I was getting on Jason's nerves running around trying to find everything to fill the basket) and it turned out extra cute! It may just be a Christmas tradition! I chose this book:Pinkalicious and the Pink Drink.

I decided on this book, because it had a ton of cute things in it that were great for the little basket. In the book, Pinkalicious talks about how she wants to go to the mall to buy some gumballs, but she doesn't have any money. So, she sets up a lemonade stand and raises money to buy some gumballs. I basically went through the book page by page and put something in the basket (pink, of course) that pertained to that certain page. For example, on one page she talks about not having any money in her piggy bank. So I threw in a little pink pig to represent the piggy bank. The basket also included the exact change that Pinkalicious made from her lemonade stand(6 quarters, 4 dimes, 5 nickels, and 10 pennies), 9 pink gumballs (because that is how many she was able to buy), pink bubbles, a container of pink lemonade, the book(of course), and ingredients for pink cupcakes (because Pinkalicious thinks that might be her next money making adventure)!

So....while we were sitting around on New Year's Eve Day, Rylee and I decided to whip up a batch of pink cupcakes! She even pointed out that she had on the right color----PINK!She is becoming quite the little mixer!Her favorite part! Jett was demanding attention by the time it was time to get the cupcakes iced, so Daddy stepped in and did the job for us!

We had a lot of fun! I can't wait to do another book-themed basket! I think I am addicted!