A Visit with Friends

My best friend from high school, Erin, is a college math professor and has the summers off from teaching. She decided to head our way for a visit this week. She came with her son Hayden, 4 years old, and daughter Addison, one month younger than Elise, on Monday. They arrived right as we were going down for naps so Carter decided to skip his nap and Elise went down about an hour later than usual. Miss Addison hadn't napped in the car as planned so she was very tired but just couldn't quite fall asleep for her nap. The boys had a blast playing although Carter kept telling Hayden, "Let's go lay down and rest for a bit. I'm too tired to play." Eventually I talked Carter into laying down to rest for a bit with me and he did fall asleep for a short little nap. When Elise woke up we headed out to a park with a splash pad. I was bummed to find part of the splash pad was turned off for maintenance, but Carter and Hayden didn't mind. Their favorite part of the trip was filling cups with water and pouring them down the slides. Elise was so smitten with Addison, but hasn't made the connection that it hurts others when she grabs their faces so she kept trying to grab Addison's face. Eventually she got her (I was standing right with her the whole time telling her "no" and pulling her hand down, but somehow missed her that time) and poor Miss Addison left the playground with a scratch on her face. As we were packing up to leave, Carter told me he had to poop. So we ended up in the yucky public restroom battling a wet swimsuit so he could go. It took long enough that Ty beat us home and had already started on the enchiladas I had planned for dinner. Since he was cooking Erin and I got the boys started on clean up. They loved turning it into a competition, one picking up a certain kind of toy while the other one picked up different toys and seeing who could finish first. Cleaning up in the playroom, Hayden even said, "Carter you clean up the cars. I'll clean up the food. We'll see who's done first!" It was so cute.

Little cuties ready to play at the splash pad!

Elise walked over and climbed in Erin's lap.

Elise saw Addison climbing the slide so she just had to do it too!

After I put Elise down for bed, we started talking about the best place for Addison to sleep. Eventually we decided to try putting her in the Pack N Play in Elise's room while Elise slept in the crib. It would be their first sleep over! It seemed like it might go okay because Elise looked over at Addison initially, but stayed laying down and didn't cry even when Addison cried. Inevitably Elise stood up and started crying herself and we just couldn't get them both laying down and quiet at the same time so Elise was off into Ty and my room in the Pack N Play while Addison slept in her crib. It was fun to try, but it did delay their bedtimes significantly! The trouble with having Elise sleep in our room was that we only have one working bathroom since the main bathroom is under construction so we had to walk through the room she was sleeping in to use the restroom. She did amazingly well sleeping through most of that and we did send the boys out to potty in the backyard a few times. Carter wanted Hayden to sleep in his bed with him and Hayden initially wanted to. Then they decided to sleep on the floor in Carter's sleeping bag. Eventually Hayden decided he wanted to sleep with his mom on the futon. Carter slept in his room, but was so disappointed Hayden wasn't sleeping with him and was desperate to have a sleeping buddy that I laid with him until he fell asleep. It was an interesting night, but eventually everyone fell asleep so that was good! Erin brought some wine so we could sit around and chat while enjoying a glass after the kids went to bed, but it never got opened.

Addison and Elise's first sleepover appeared to be a success...

The boys watching a show with Ty while we got the girls down for bed.

Then Elise stood up and things deteriorated quickly.

No main bathroom meant sink baths for all the kids.

The boys camped out on the floor.

Tuesday morning Carter woke up a little after 6 am and came into bed with me since Ty was already gone to work. He went back to sleep and would've stayed asleep but Bobbie came into the room crying and making a fuss because she wanted breakfast. Ty normally feeds the dogs and lets them out to potty before he leaves in the morning but he didn't because he didn't want to wake Erin and Hayden. Carter and I let the dogs out to potty and then headed back to bed but Carter couldn't fall back to sleep. When Elise woke up I decided to just load the kids up in their jammies and head out for a run so Erin, Hayden, and Addison could sleep without us waking them. We ran out and back to the house and then out a different direction so we could stop by Sonic and pick up breakfast for the kids. I hadn't wanted to venture into the kitchen in fear of waking anyone so I didn't make the kids breakfast or pack myself a water. I gave them each a banana to eat in the stroller and then we picked up Jr. Breakfast Burritos for each of them and a large water for myself. It was the most delicious water ever! Oh my goodness! I love Sonic ice and I was so thirsty! Erin and Hayden woke up when we got home and then Addison was up shortly after. We all got ready and then headed to the blueberry patch to pick blueberries. Both the boys were crazy excited about it and I'm not sure exactly why, but it was cute! It was the first time any of us had gone blueberry picking. We ended up with 2 pounds of blueberries for $8! The berry patch we went to is the one closest to our house and all of the proceeds from the sales go to funding mission trips to third world countries which makes the berries taste even better! Carter probably ate about as many berries as he put in his container. He also gave quite a few berries to Addison who was riding along in her stroller. It was hilarious to see Carter sitting on the ground eating berries instead of picking them!

Hayden and Carter excited for berry picking.

They decided to get up underneath the netting.

Carter camped out eating blueberries.

Addison was so over it!

Elise fell asleep on the way home so I put her straight down for a nap when we got back. The boys wanted to play outside so we did for a while before heading inside to make blueberry muffins. The boys were such great helpers and Addison loved watching us! We each had a muffin with lunch and Hayden said he didn't like the purple things in the muffins which was hilarious! Then Addison was pretty much just picking the blueberries out of her muffin to eat them. It was a hoot! Sweet Addison was exhausted and had quite a few more trips and falls than usual as a result, but she just couldn't fall asleep. Erin decided they'd better head home after lunch so Addison could take a nap. The boys had fun playing while Erin loaded up and headed to an ATM to get cash for the toll road on the way home. Addison just kept pointing to the door saying go with a /d/ sound rather than a /g/ sound which was hilarious! It was so much fun to have our friends come to visit and for both kids to kind of have their first sleep over! We love that they will make the drive down just to hang out with us!

Playing in the front yard before lunch.

All my muffin making helpers.

Addison loved her muffin!