Nice playing with you

Saturday night after dinner, I called one of our neighbors. D&M are a great couple. They've got two girls. One that's a year younger than the Bear (Ash). One that's 5 months older than the Princess and who is in the 1st grade (Allie).

Anyway, we hadn't seen Allie in AGES. Since the Princess already played with our neighbor across the street on Satuday, I thought it would be a good idea to invite Allie over on Sunday.

Around 11am, M dropped off Allie. The girls played for about an hour and then we fixed them some lunch (PB&J, grapes, blueberries, and tortilla chips). Then they traipsed upstairs for another hour. They came downstairs and I set out craft supplies for them. They did that for about an hour. Then back upstairs to play some more in the Prin's bedroom. The Bear kind of played along the rim. He enjoyed that because he ADORES Allie. But he soon took a break and laid out in the loft and watched Cars by himself. He ended up falling asleep on the carpet with his head on his floor pillow. The girls found him laying there and let the Hubs know. The Hubs could NOT believe the Bear just zonked out on the floor. But the kid does that at daycare, so it's not anything new.

Anyway, around 4:15pm I told the Hubs that he should tell the girls to start cleaning up. But I ended up doing that. The Hubs and the just awakened Bear went out to pick us up some dinner. So I told the girls they needed to clean up. They did and walked downstairs.

Me: Okay, it's already 4:30pm. I think we should take you home Sweetie. It's almost dinnertime.
Allie: But where's my Dad?
Me: I'm sure he's at your house.
Allie: But can I call him first?
Me: Well, we'll walk over and I'm sure he's there. But if he's not then we'll call.
Allie: But can I call him? I think he'd let me stay for dinner.
Me: Oh...I don't know. I think we'll just walk over and see what your Mom says.

We walk over there and both D&M come to the door.

D&M: Wow! You're home honey?
Allie: Yeah.
D&M: She always stays so long when she's playing with Prin.
Me: They had a laid back time. They dressed up. They played horses. They did some crafts. They had PB&Js for lunch and they just had some vanilla yogurt for a snack about an hour ago.
D&M: We're always so surprised that she stays so long when she's at your house. When she plays with D or O (the ones the Prin played with yesterday), a problem always comes up. They end up only playing for an hour at the most.
Me: Well, it's the Prin. She's really gentle and easy-going when she's got people over.
D&M: THANKS for having Allie over Prin.

Now can you belive it? Allie was over at our house for 5 1/2 hours and she wanted to stay for dinner. And when she plays with the other neighborhood girls, she only stays for an hour before some disagreement crops up. I've gotta say, that I am so proud of my girl for her ability not to make waves. She doesn't LEAD her guests into play. She takes turns. I'm so proud of the young lady she's developing into.