El Paso Trip: Emma and I have a sleepover

I have a few friends here in Grand Rapids who are grandmothers. They have both grandsons as well as granddaughters ... but they are always talking about the special "girl" times they have with their granddaughters, and I always feel a bit left out because my grandchildren live so far away and I've never had just "girl" time with Emma ... well, not since she was about two years old. But since Grandpa Jones couldn't come this trip and I was all by myself at the Annex, I asked if Emma and I could have a sleepover ~ and we did! I had purchased one of those toy looms that you can make potholders with, so Emma and I worked on some Christmas presents for her mommy. And while I was doing the parts that were too difficult for Emma, she was making a nice Christmas card for her daddy.
We also did a whole bunch of PENCIL FUN Books ... do you know what those are? I remember them when I was really young ~ I think we had them at Vacation Bible School ~ but they are books that have great Bible stories and parts of the picture is missing until you rub a pencil across the page and ... magically! The picture appears! Emma was SO fascinated by this phenomena and she LOVED the stories. I had one for the healing of the paralytic (which I had recently taught at MOPS!), the birth of Jesus, baby Moses and a whole bunch of others ...

We tried to pop some microwave popcorn, but unfortunately burned it beyond being able to consume ... sigh. Thankfully, we had some other snacks Diana had given us to take along for the night. We read stories, worked on stencil pictures, cuddled up together, wrapped presents ... we just had a great night. I will say, though, that the Annex presented a few challenges. First, it's a really old part of Fort Bliss. Jesse tells me the Annex actually once was a barracks. It's real clean and everything and very spacious; but it has a really old heating system that makes completely random obnoxious noise that ... never quits! Emma was quite bothered by it and I was a little concerned it would keep her awake all night. However, she finally tuckered out somewhere about 11:15 and we slept like logs until about 6:30 the next morning when the person in the next room was very loudly conversing on the phone. We could hear every single word and ... woke up!
We got dressed and walked across the street to another Annex building where they serve a Continental breakfast (very nice). Emma ate two huge bowls of cereal, a banana nut muffin, a piece of toast, some juice ... and would have eaten the grapes, except they weren't real! For such a slightly built little girl, she can really put away a lot of food! :)
I love her beautiful smile!
Emma was all sparkles and laughter and fun. I told her she is the JOY of my heart.

Well, we had our "girl" time ... but now it was 10:00 Saturday morning and time to go back and play with the boys!