Saturday was quite the day for us. We started it off with an outing to the nature center. Joel and Bennett didn't get to go the week before, and Bennett had been asking to visit. When we got there, he wasn't at all impressed by the rock that Caroline climbed. "I thought it'd be... bigger..." he said. Then he immediately climbed it. We took a short walk, saw a snake. Caroline was crabby and didn't want to walk but Bennett enjoyed it.
After the nature center, Caroline fell asleep in the car. This was the best planning ever since we were due to meet Princess Belle at 1, right during Caroline's nap time. By the time we go to The Marsh, Caroline had a nice 45 minute nap. It definitely wasn't long enough, but she has functioned on short naps before. After we parked the car, Caroline put on her princess dress. She was actually really excited to put on the dress and meet Belle. As soon as we walked in, Belle came over and said, "Hi! I'm Belle, what's your name?" and Caroline was immediately frightened and turned away. Ugh. I knew this would happen. Belle was great and pointed us to a table so that we could get started on coloring a bookmark. Caroline wasn't really into it and was mostly scared of all the strangers in the room.
Slowly Belle was pulling girls one by one to have their face or arm painted. I kept asked Caroline if she wanted to do it, and she kept shaking her head no. Luckily girls kept trickling in slowly, and after 15-20 minutes, Belle was doing the last girl. I finally told Caroline that the last girl was going, and if she wanted to, she could get her arm painted, but there wouldn't be any time to make up her mind after this girl was done. To my shock, Caroline actually nodded her head, saying she wanted to do it. Of course she insisted on sitting on my lap, but she let Belle draw a flower on her arm.
After the painting, it was story time. Belle was great, telling and singing her way through the story. The kids were captivated, and I was the only adult sitting on the floor with the children. I was eventually able to scoot Caroline off of my lap and onto the floor.
Then it was time for dress-up. One by one the girls got to pick out wings, a crown and a magic wand. When it came time for the wand, Belle kindly said, "It is Caroline's turn to pick first this time, since she hasn't gone first yet," which I found to be so thoughtful. Caroline was definitely on board with dress-up and I'm surprised Belle noticed with all that was happening.
Then the girls practiced their curtsies. Caroline obviously, did not:
And there was a red carpet fashion show, which Caroline also did not participate in, but she did walk alone, when everyone was done.
We all went outside to take pictures with Belle. To my surprise, Caroline agreed to take pictures, although she never cracked a smile.
Back inside, the girls decorated mirrors. Caroline really enjoyed this activity.
Then Belle handed out cupcakes. It was the first time at the event that she cracked a genuine smile.
Finally the event was over. The second we got in the car, Caroline was talking about Belle and what we had done. When we got home, she ran inside to find Joel. "Belle! I saw Princess Belle!" and had a huge smile on her face, so clearly she really enjoyed herself.
Since neither kid really napped, they were both in horrible moods. We went to the library and then back home to play outside while Joel grilled dinner. Bennett enjoyed my new lounge chair:
This weekend I noticed them interacting a lot more. I was even able to get them to pose for some photos:
They did this on their own, which of course resulted in them falling over and Caroline crying:
Then Joel had the brilliant idea to camp out. Obviously I wasn't going to sleep outside, but his Mother's Day gift to me was a night in the home, alone, so that I could get some rest. The kids were VERY excited.
The insisted on a bonfire:
Then Joel took Caroline into the tent, to read stories and put her to sleep. Meanwhile, Bennett and I enjoyed the fire together. Shortly after, Joel came out and said Caroline refused to go to bed because she could hear us talking. Here they are after failed attempt #1.
Then he decided to read to them on the swing. I consider this failed attempt #2 since neither were any closer to being tired for bed:
Then we went back to the tent and I attempted to read to them.
After a few stories, Joel mentioned that I was going to go in the home and apparently this was news to Caroline. "WUT?" she asked. "Mommy is going to sleep in the house. We are going to camp in the tent," we explained to her. Caroline immediately stood up, grabbed her sleeping bag and bottle, and said, "I sleep in house too." We tried hard to convince her to sleep outside, but as my loyal child, she was not sleeping anywhere without me. I did offer to sleep in the tent, to which she said she'd sleep in the tent... but then she could see I wasn't seriously and insisted on sleeping inside. "I sleep in Mommy and Daddy's room." When we were first setting up the tent, I told Joel there was no way the kids were going to sleep outside. My guess was that they'd be done by 9 pm. Caroline gathering her things happened minutes before 9.
So Caroline and I slept in the house. I let her put her sleeping bag on our bed, and despite being well past her bedtime, she was so chatty and wanted to talk about her day. We went through all the things we did with Belle, and she said she liked each one. Then she said, "and my dress." "Oh, you liked your dress too? Was that your favorite thing about seeing Belle?" "Yes."
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