Camp Christi 2010 Part 2

After our busy day Monday, Gracie wanted to "relax" and get some "peace and quiet" on Tuesday. That was Audrey's day to go to Mother's Day Out so I had Gracie all to myself for 4 hours!

We started out the morning by Gracie "rock, rocking" Audrey and teaching her to bang on the table during breakfast.

Gracie had cereal so Audrey had to have some as well. She didn't like it that hers didn't have milk!

One super perk of having Meredith Grace here was that I was able to put my makeup on without having a toddler sit in my lap and put her makeup on as well. Oh, how nice that was! I am missing that this week!

Last year at Camp Christi (CC) we did a lot of craft projects and baking, etc. Not this year. On the ride to my house on Sunday, I asked MG what was the main thing she wanted to do while she was here. Her response was to change Audrey's diaper and to get some peace and quiet. That last part cracks me up thinking about it.  I threw a lot of the plans I had made out the window at that point. We just did whatever Gracie wanted to do and on Tuesday she wanted to have her nails done. FINE WITH ME!!

I think her mani/pedi turned out perfectly!! The daisies were just the right touch.

She also wanted to go eat at Ruby Tuesday's because they have the "best" salad bars ever. I have only been to the Ruby Tuesday's here twice and both times were with MG. This girl loves it!

Of course if you eat that much salad then you must have Dairy Queen for dessert.

After a quick trip to Target to get Laura a surprise, we had to go get Audrey from MDO. Audrey almost always crashes right when she gets home from school. She plays nonstop while she is there and is exhausted. Tuesday wasn't any different. What was different though was that when she awoke from her nap she didn't call, "mooommmmmyyyy" like she normally does. She woke up and said, "Graaaaaaccieeeee, Graaaaaaccciiieee" until we went in and got her. At first I thought it was just a fluke but she was serious! She wanted GRACIE! This was what we were greeted with when we entered her room.

Sorry these pictures are so blurry, I forgot to change my camera settings.

After they finished their cuddling and rocking, we all loaded up and went to the Children's Science Museum. Audrey loves this place and Gracie did too-- last year. This year it was "boring"! :)


Group photo of the three of us...

Bed of naaaiiilllsss!

Last time I tried to put Audrey on this she screamed and cried! Not this time!! She got to watch Gracie do it so she had to do it then!

Gracie-- Self Portrait

                                                    Audrey's hiney.

Hurricane Gracie and....

...Tornado Gracie.

After about 45 minutes, Gracie declared that she was ready to go home. So we did!

The final day of CC will be in a whole new post! :)

Camp Christi 2010 Part 1

 
Sweet Gracie came to stay with us once again for Camp Christi. It was different this year. My precious, little niece who used to just love for me to let her "fix" my hair, wanted to always snuggle before bedtime, and loved for me to read to her, wanted to fix her own hair (not mine), told me she was tired and ready to go to sleep and said that reading was boring. I knew she was growing up, I just didn't realize how quickly. She's still just as precious as ever, I am just not as cool as I used to be!
 
For example, we went to the zoo Monday. I had a blue bandaid on my arm. Before we got out of the car at the zoo, she said, "Christi, you're not going to wear that bandaid, are you?" Right then and there I realized that I needed to rethink everything I had planned for the week!


I'm going to backtrack a bit. I met my sister, my mom and both of my nieces halfway between my house and theirs on Sunday to pick Gracie up. We shopped, ate at Olive Garden and then I headed back home with Gracie. I asked her what she wanted to do and she said she wanted to go to the park. We went straight there and met some friends of mine.

Gracie is a great helper. It was the easiest time I've had a the park in a long time. Usually I am climbing up and going down the slides with Audrey!

One thing that was very clear this year is that Audrey adores Meredith Grace. She followed her everywhere and tried to imitate everything Gracie did!

She even tried to hang from the monkey bars like Meredith Grace did!

I did get to expose Gracie to something really cool that only an aunt like me could do... the ice cream truck! Haha!

Audrey looovves this ice cream truck! She can hear the jingle way before I can and she usually starts to head to the gate at the park saying, "ice cream, ice cream" the entire way. To my knowledge, there are not any ice cream trucks in the town Gracie lives in and if there are, they don't go out in the country where she lives. I make a point to get her an ice cream from the truck every time she's here because everyone knows ice cream is better when it comes from a truck!

After the park, we headed home and got supper, played some more and Gracie got to practice her "rock, rock" skills. For some reason, Audrey only wanted to be rocked by Gracie and Gracie LOVED every minute of it!!

The next day, we woke up and Gracie wanted to go to the zoo.  She picked out her own clothes and chose how she wanted her hair. She's at Camp Christi she can do that, you know?

She got to see a lot of different animal species such as this:

and this...

But her favorite things at the zoo were...

Addie,

Elise,

and Audrey!

Notice how Gracie has Audrey's hand with one hand and is pushing the stroller with her other hand. Isn't she a great little Momma?

I'm not sure what I was doing. From the looks of it I was letting Gracie be in charge!

While at the zoo we also took our first train ride ever. I'm not sure why but I've never riden the train with Audrey and since this was Camp Christi, we did whatever Gracie wanted to do and she wanted to ride. So.we.did.

This next picture is of my dear friend Kelly and her son, Griffin and daughter, (my god daughter) Elise. I just love how Elise is peeping out over her Mom's shoulder!

Meredith Grace-- posing

                

I don't know why but I didn't get a picture of Addie's mom, Lindy. Next time!

After the zoo, we went to lunch with our friends and then headed home for naps. Do you know this eight year old took a nap every day that she was here?!? Ahh... that part she hasn't grown out of! We also went back to the park that afternoon for more ice cream. Hee.. Hee...

Part 2 is a comin' - I got an embroidery machine about 3 weeks ago and I am finally getting around to learning how to use it. It is taking up all my free time!

Wordless Wednesday

Easter Bunny

When Audrey got up Easter morning, she had a surprise ("prize"- as Audrey says) waiting for her on the kitchen counter.

The Easter Bunny came and brought her all her favorite things!

Little People, books, watercolors, a paint with water book, a Veggie Tales "DDD" (DVD) and playdough! She loved all her little prizes and was so excited!

Now, the Veggie Tales DVD wasn't as much of a hit as the Easter Bunny thought it would be. It was Veggie Tales: An Easter Story and it was a loose adaptation of "A Christmas Carol". Weellll... Audrey has never shown any interest in actually watching a DVD, she's always just danced and bee-bopped to the music. She paid clllloooossee attention to this one! This DVD has "The Ghost of Easter's Past" in it and it scared the mess out of Audrey!! I put the DVD in her player so she could watch it on the way to my parents house and when it got to the part when the ghost came on, she started yelling, "No, No, DDD, OFF!, No, No!"! She was really frightened! I almost threw the stupid DVD out the window! So, note to self: just because a DVD has a Christian message and is sold at Lifeway, it doesn't mean it is appropriate for my little one!

Easter at Granny and Paw Paw's

We attended Easter services Saturday night so that Audrey and I could get up early Sunday morning and go visit with my family. Momma cooked a huge meal and Audrey ate more ham, white peas, and rolls than I've ever seen her eat! It was lots of fun and I wish I had some of those white peas to eat right now!

In the following photo you will see Gracie, Laura and Audrey with their Easter baskets from Granny and Paw Paw. Audrey is obviously amazed by hers and is already trying to get in it.

Here she is telling us to "open".

And here she is looking at her cousins as if to say, "What is wrong with you two? Why haven't you gotten into your baskets yet?".

The girls' Easter baskets were filled with lots of yummy goodies this year. Momma got the treats from Meredith's Miracles . MM is a charity organization in my hometown that raises money to help families who have to leave the town to provide specialized care for their sick children. They help with all related expenses. They did the Easter baskets as a fund-raiser this year. All three of the girls LOVED their baskets.

                    

                    

                   

Audrey couldn't get enough to eat the entire time we were there. She ate EVERYTHING we put in front of her. In the picture above, Gracie is giving her a boiled egg! She also ate her fill of jelly beans with Granny, too!

                  

                  

After they dug into their baskets and filled their bellies with candy, we hunted eggs in the front yard. This was Audrey's third egg hunt so by this time she'd figured out that there was candy inside the eggs! After she found the first egg, it was hard for me to get her to look for anymore. She just wanted to stop and eat the candy inside of it!

                       

                       

Little "La, La" (as Audrey calls her) is becoming quite the photographer these days. Notice how she holds the camera...

... with just one hand! I'd say she's a pro. Here's some of her handywork.

She's a fan of the close-up! :) I love that sassy girl!