Overnight at Grandma's

One week after his birthday Noah went to Grandma Ruth and Grandpa Tom's for a sleep over--a Toy Story Sleep Over. The plan was to watch all three Toy Story movies with Noah's "toy story guys," eat snacks, and sleep on the air mattress. Noah could not have been more excited. He knew that I would take him to Gma's and Gpa's after supper so at breakfast he asked, "is this supper?" Poor kid. It was a long day for him. Miraculously I did get him to take a nap though. I think he was motivated by knowing that if he took a nap he would be able to stay up later to watch the movies. He was so excited. I called Gma Ruth during the day to tell her how jazzed he was and she was worried that the acutal event wouldn't live up to his expectations. I told her all she had to do was let him sleep on the air mattress, serve popcorn, and watch all three movies and he'd be a happy camper. She did, and he was. He was literally jumping up and down with excitement, pacing the back hallway by the door after wolfing down his supper. It was so cute.

Here is Noah beaming with excitement with his suitcase and two bins of his "Toy Story Guys." His bag was packed and set by the door along with the bins the night before.

Here he is walking up to the door of Gma and Gpa's house. He was so excited to go and do what he was planning to do, but he was also very excited to be going alone. He was really worried that Anna and I would stay. He wanted us to leave asap and get on with his special party.

As soon as we got there he emptied out his suitcase and got some "Toy Story Guys" out. As you can see if you look closely, Noah packed his own suitcase--he packed about 10 pairs of underwear. I'm not sure why, but the fact that he packed his own suitcase because he was so excited and couldn't wait any longer is just too precious.

And on the other side of town.......................

Jon and I had some special time alone with Anna. We took a long walk around the neighborhood and read a few extra books at bedtime. It was weird to just have one kid again. It felt so easy. We felt like we could do anything. When we dropped Noah off we looked at each other with this crazed look in our eyes and said, "what should we do?" because it felt like with only one kid we could do anything--go to South Bend for dinner, go shopping, go to a movie, go on a walk, go to the moon. It was funny. We also thought the walk around the neighborhood would be a lot quieter without Noah there, but we were wrong. Anna can easily fill up the airspace that he left open for her. It was pretty much a non-stop running commentary on everything we saw. Oh, Anna, you crack me up!

When it was all said and done, Noah did not at all want to come home. He had a great time. He was tired, but it was worth it. I just so love that he has this kind of relationship with his grandparents and that he so loves to be with them and to stay with them. What a blessing!