What we did this weekend ...

The very first thing Emma wanted to do when she entered my house Friday afternoon was to play SCRABBLE! Yay! I'm thrilled. It's my favorite game. Thankfully, Emma allows us to play casually and isn't terribly worried about our scores or if I occasionally help her make a word. I'm so glad, because I love words and I want her to love them as well. She did insist that we keep a running tab of our points and ... look! She ended up having a very good score!

The boys busied themselves in the playroom, building all sorts of block castles and other things until it was dinner time. We made some cinnamon french toast, sausage, cut up some watermelon, and enjoyed our meal very much. And I had just enough Mackinac Island Fudge ice cream to make THREE sundaes for desert. 

We decided to get ready for bed early so that we could continue reading our chapter from "The Wise Woman." I think we read three or four chapters with the kids hanging on every word (!) and then it was time to snuggle up and watch a movie.

Our movie of the night was "Les Miserables" but not the most recent musical version. I haven't even seen that one yet! I own the older rendition with Liam Neeson playing Jean Valjean. I wasn't sure if the story would really interest these kiddos ... and I was surprised, as well as pleased, with how closely they followed the storyline. 

Nigel's Birthday Party ~ 
I was invited to a birthday party Saturday morning over at my small group leader's house. I asked if it was OK to bring the grandchildren, and permission was granted! They had so much fun meeting these wonderful people who have prayed for them for years and years. This was mostly a grown-up party, but thankfully, there were two other children present: Leo (5) and Eve (3) ~ and even though they were quite young, all of the children played very nicely together. My three grandchildren feel as though they have made "friends for life." 

This is FIKEY ... he is a beautiful ...
parrot? The children really enjoyed feeding him.

 Matthew fed FIKEY too ~ in fact, this is Matthew and Fikey (below), except I accidentally cut off Matthew's head in the picture.

Nigel and Angela have a really comfortable and happy home. Their two college-age sons (Ben and Stephen) brought the kids downstairs and showed them their foosball game, as well as Angela's exercise equipment.  

 We also met their two beautiful cats, who would not allow me to photograph them at all! Their names are Psyche and Cupid. We filled our stomachs with good food, enjoyed friendship and fellowship, and then drove back to my house for the rest of the day. We had a little mishap on our drive home because my crockpot (which had some really yummy meatballs left over from the party) flipped upside down in my trunk ... what a mess! We were not able to salvage a single meatball.

We resumed just playing around the house once we returned home.

Matthew set up the Hotwheels track and
raced every car in the house!

 Emma has been using a beginner's piano book that I am borrowing, and combined with what she is learning in her music class at school, she is teaching herself how to play the piano. I have hardly had any input whatsoever. She can play the first six songs now in this book and she is so pleased.

It was a weekend for just hanging around together, playing games, fixing food, and enjoying each other. It rained most of the time we were together, but my little beach house was cozy and warm. 

Ems and Chris playing a game of
CHESS