June 15/16 Erin Overnight

Sunday Night/Monday AM:  After our Mill Creek adventure, Erin and I came back to my house to eat supper and then play some games, and maybe watch a movie--although we hadn't decided yet if we would rather play games exclusively. Oh! We did sit at the table and paint for awhile right after dinner. Erin had an idea in her head that she wanted to put onto paper--a nice lake with a sailboat and fish, etc. Except what she had visualized in her mind just would NOT cooperate on paper. I totally understand! Poor dear. She finally decided we should put the painting away for the time being.

I had hidden my 11 little ducks around the main two rooms of my little place--pretty much right out in the open, but they are SO tiny that you can barely see them. Erin had fun tracking them down and placing each one on the table. My new turtle toy, Toula, was played with for awhile too.

At about 8:30, it was decided we would watch "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe" since I had it in my video library. Erin had listened to the book version of it a few months ago, but had never seen the video. So we got out some milk and cookies and settled into our pjs and watched most of the movie ...

Baby James watched most of it with us. It was a little more tense than Erin remembered it being ...

We finally decided to finish watching it in the morning before we go to Deer Tracks Junction. By this time, it was about 10:15, so I naturally (hah!) assumed this little child would be super sleepy and ... you know ... go to sleep pretty easily. Was I ever mistaken! She started out in the top bunkbed with a few books, a water bottle, a box of tissue, her stuffed animal "Fluffy" and lots of soft blankets. I was out in the main room playing some soft piano music. This lasted all of 15 minutes, with Erin up and down 5x at least. So then, I was very tired and we decided we would make a little bed for Erin on my floor using my circular cushion (from my bedroom chair, which is very large) and put it next to my bed with pillows, stuffed animals, water bottle--everything you could POSSIBLY need ... and I would quietly read while Erin fell asleep. I even played some very quiet music that Erin likes from my iPhone. Erin rolled around, sat up, laid down, rolled around some more ... no sleep ... for her or for me!

Erin thought it might be a good idea if she tried the BOTTOM bunk instead, so we set her up all nice and cozy there. I think she fell asleep by 11:30! She was awake again at 6:30 am, but that was fine. At least we didn't stay up ALL NIGHT.

We played a few more games (Memory) after we ate our cinnamon toast, and then we got ready to go to Deer Tracks!