Fun with Avery!

Last night, we met Chris and April (Michael's Brother and SIL) and their girls, Avery and Allie for dinner at Chick-fil-A. After dinner, Avery came home with us to spend the night, and she spent the day with us today. It was good to see them, and Michael and I had so much fun with Avery. I think she had fun too!

On the way home from dinner, we talked about Christmas, Santa (she informed us numerous times that she does NOT like Santa), what she wants for Christmas ("guns and boots") and about all the Christmas lights. She pointed out some "very pretty" Christmas lights (street lamps in the city and lots of headlights!). We made sure to drive down a few streets in our neighborhood and look at Christmas lights before we pulled into the driveway. She particularly liked the inflatable train that Santa was driving in one neighbor's yard.

Once we got home, we immediately got busy having a fun weekend!

We showed Avery "her" room, which she loved.

Within five minutes of being home, Avery discovered our closet and we had an impromptu fashion show.

Once we were properly dressed, she was excited to explore the house and see the Christmas decorations. [With great awe, she told us that she liked our Christmas trees. It was so sweet, but it was a much bigger compliment before she told us - with that same excitement and awe - that she liked our bedroom, toilet seat cover, kitchen, star ornament, refrigerator, and dryer! :o)]

After dressing for bed, we had the ice cream that she had been promised. Even though waiting wasn't the most exciting part, she was very patient. (Don't worry Mom and Dad, she didn't have very much!)

I think she liked the S'Mores ice cream, because she licked her bowl clean!

The first thing Avery had noticed when she walked into the house was a Disney princess puzzle play mat we had bought. Since we have hard floors in all the livings areas, we wanted something that she could sit on to play. After ice cream, Uncle Michael helped her put it all together. She was very excited about it!

When bed time came, she was very good. After reading her Bible story and going potty, she knew it was very close to bedtime when Michael read her one last story. During the story she thought that she needed another drink of water and needed to go potty again. However, when given the choice of listening to the story or turning the lights out, she decided that the story wasn't so bad! She did convince us to let her up one time to go to the bathroom. I didn't really think she needed to go, but I was going to feel really bad if she went in the bed. All in all, it was pretty painless. She was in bed by 10:00 and slept until around 8:45, which was a nice unexpected surprise!

With morning came lots of new excitement.

I heard her getting up and met her in the hallway. She was still trying to wake up and without saying anything, she reached up for me to pick her up. When I asked her if she needed to go potty, she replied with a very sleepy "no." At about that same time, she spotted her Disney princess inflatable EZ Bed that Michael and I got her for her birthday. Michael had blown it up after she went to bed, and it was on the floor in our room. As soon as she spotted it, she perked up and with great excitement asked, "Do I have a bed in your room?" When I told her she did, she was very excited! I think she's only played in it a couple of times, and she had to lie in it before we could even make it to the bathroom.

For breakfast, we made "pig" pancakes with specially requested pink sprinkles!

We enjoyed pancakes and bananas with syrup at Avery's "special table." This was a table set that I got for Christmas when I was probably about Avery's age. I had it in my bedroom for many years as I was growing up. Michael and I went to Mom and Dad's house last weekend to get it down from the attic and clean it up. It was fun to get it out and get more use out of it.

After breakfast we watched Avery's favorite TV show, "the playground show" (aka Sid, the Science Kid). We were very thankful that Mommy had given us the suggestion to record it. I think Michael has a new show to watch now! :o)

When it was over, Avery wanted to watch it again in her pink bed.

We got the mail and opened Christmas cards from friends and family, and then we had more play time on the mat.

We made cookies for dessert. Avery requested blue cookies for Daddy. While the cookies were baking, we opened Hershey's kisses to go on top.

Avery was very excited when they were finished.  (Click on the picture below to enlarge it so you can see her face.)

We made Christmas cards for Mommy, Daddy, and Allie (and also Michael, Melissa, and Avery so no one would be left out!).

We walked to Chuck E. Cheese for lunch.  While we were there, we ate pizza.

We rode a horse.  (She had her eye on this horse the whole time we were eating, and she could not wait to ride it.  However, once she climbed up and it started moving, she got a little scared and wanted a hand to hold.  Before it was over, she did let go and enjoy it on her own!  I love the second picture...she looks so proud of herself!)

We played a game where you had to feed plastic balls to the watch dog.  It was fun to watch the plastic balls fly around.

We played several other fun games and rode some other rides.

We played skee ball. (Avery was much more interested in how they came back down the ramp and got "held" in the machine. Every time a ball went in, she immediately stepped back to watch it roll back into place.)

We collected lots of tickets!

We slid...

and slid...

and slid.....

We drove a car with Barney and loved on him a little bit.

We did NOT talk to Chuck E. Cheese when he came out. (Remember how she doesn't like Santa...well, she doesn't like any costume characters.)

Before we left, we went to the prize counter to cash in our tickets. Avery got a purple Chuck E. Cheese ruler that she can use as a book mark in her Bible (last night she informed us that she needs a book mark to mark her pages), a sucker, and a balloon.

We had a nice walk back to the house.

We had LOTS of fun with bubbles. (The story we read last night was about two silly sisters swimming in a bubble bath. They made hats and Santa beards with the bubbles, so that's what Avery wanted to do too. I think her favorite part of making a Santa beard was washing it off in the faucet. She did this many times!)

Getting out of the water was cold, so Uncle Michael warmed a towel in the dryer. We snuggled on the couch to warm up before "watching Cinderella" (aka nap time) in the big girl room.

Mommy, Daddy, and Allie were coming over for dinner, so after Avery's nap we got dinner put together and in the oven. Then we got our make-up on so we would be ready when they arrived.

We watched some VeggieTales Christmas while waiting on Mom, Dad, and Allie. Avery was excited to watch TV in her pink bed, and she was very excited when the doorbell rang!

I think Allie especially liked her card! ;o)

After dinner, we celebrated Christmas, and Avery got to open her gifts. Avery knew which gifts were hers, but she hadn't even tried to touch them all day. She liked her Disney princess (do you see a theme here?) camping chair, but she seemed most excited about her Play-Doh and Crayola backpack.

Unfortunately Allie was very fussy, so we didn't get a lot of pictures of her.  Even though she wasn't very happy, she was ready to celebrate in her Christmas tree shirt and prepared with her Christmas pajamas.

Michael and I got a very sweet ornament that Avery made for us and some great hand towels! I had been wanting Christmas hand towels, and these look great in the kitchen. Thank you Chris, April, Avery, and Allie!

Then, the best part about keeping a niece (or nephew, grandchild, or friend) is that after a day full of fun, at the end of the evening, we got to relax in peace and quiet!

Avery, we had so much fun with you this weekend! We hope you'll come stay with us again soon!