Our second sleepover ...

School resumed last week, and for my grandchildren it meant their very first day in a school district and building, with teachers and classmates that were completely unfamiliar to them. I prayed so much for them last week ... and so did many of my friends. I had last seen the children on Labor Day, and was excited to hear their impressions about school when I saw them Friday. I got a very enthusiastic report from all THREE children about their first three days at Pine Island Elementary.

Since they are living quite a distance from their school and are being transported back and forth every day by their folks, spending time with them on a school night is a tiny bit complicated with homework, etc. Friday finally came, and I received permission to have an overnight with the grandchildren.

My camera obviously was on the wrong setting when I snapped this picture above, but it does serve to illustrate our sleepover. We had made our own pizzas for dinner, had a wonderful Bible story time about Noah and his family, played games and listened to great music ... and then it really was time to settle down for the night. And yes ... the kiddos ARE eating kettle corn and watching a video on my rather smallish laptop screen, three sleeping bags in a row in the main room of my Beach House. We moved my little stovetop heater around from its usual corner and turned on the "fake" fire for a cozy little bit of ambience.  

I have had these soft, tiny magnetic animals
since Emma was a baby! All 3 children STILL love to play with
them and I find them posed in the funniest places!
Here they all are on the music holder of my piano.

I fixed Emma's hair like a princess, and here is
PRINCESS EMMA
dancing (naturally) to Fur Elise (once again)

Saturday morning always comes WAY TOO EARLY ... but thankfully, all of us slept in until 7:30. We had a bunch of interesting stuff to do around the house and had such a nice time together. While I was washing and styling Emma's hair, the boys played in the toy room and got an entire LEGOS space war started ... (!)

We were intending to drive over to Townsend Park and go exploring in the creek later in the morning, but rain prevented us from doing that. Instead, we continued our inside play until after lunch, when the rain had finally stopped, and then we drove up to Rockford to see the dam and take a short walk to see what we could see! The children loved it here! 

Matthew wasn't feeling very good, complaining of a headache, so we were careful not to spend too long of a time hiking. The children liked it here by the Rogue River very much. We definitely plan to come back in the future when we can spend more time exploring.  

We saw TWO turtles swimming near the rocks.
The children were happy to meet their acquaintance!