An overnighter for two ...

I picked the grandchildren up Friday at 4:00 in the afternoon. Christopher had been invited to an overnight at his close friend's house, so he decided he wasn't going to come over to my house this weekend. We were sad about that, but Christopher is 11 and is growing up! I would never force him to come over if he didn't want to -- and the offer of sleeping over at a friend's is a nice invitation.

So Emma and Matthew came over. We had SUCH a nice time. I am so thankful for the time I get to spend with these kiddos! These pictures are of Emma using her most prized Christmas gift (a phone with NO phone connection--only internet and a few games) to take a picture of ME while I was taking a picture of HER. 

 Emma uses this phone at her house and she can actually speak and it will type messages to me on Facebook--we use the private message section--and Emma sends me voice messages, cute stickers, as well as typed messages too! I am so glad we can do this together!

Friday night we ate taco's, lots and lots of raw veggies and ranch dip, and then we topped it off with fresh warm brownies. Yum.

We played a game of Kismet. I forget who won! But we sure had fun playing it and it is good for Matthew and Emma's math skills adding up their scores with each turn of play!

It was Matthew's turn to choose which movie we were watching. He picked "Two Brothers" about the little tiger cubs who were separated when they were very young and how they got back together again and actually found their mom! I fell asleep during the movie. I have never seen that movie from start to finish--I always fall asleep!

The next day, we ate a late breakfast, got cleaned up and ready for our day. We read two biographical books: "Marching with Aunt Susan" about woman's suffrage and Susan B. Anthony (it was REALLY good), and then we also read, "Words Set me Free" the story of Frederick (Bailey) Douglass--a very moving story of a young slave who learned to read and how that forever changed his life. 

We also got out our magnets and did some more playing with them. We followed the directions and made the boat that we could watch sailing on my coffee table ... 

… although it was difficult to hold the big magnet underneath the wicker table and have very smooth sailing. Emma had just gotten finished with her bath and still had her hair wrapped in the towel (which we warm up for her in my dryer just when she is stepping out of the bath!). 

Matthew … I love your smile sweetie! Matthew played with the magnets too. 

 We found out that wood is a CONDUCTOR and so we used my wooden kitchen table to make the sailboat sail ...

 Matthew played with Ko-Ko (my new puppet) for awhile, and then we played another game of Kismet in which on my very first turn rolled a Kismet of 6's and then a few turns later rolled a Kismet of 4's! I have never gotten two Kismets in one game before. The children were LESS than happy on my account.

But truly, we did have fun playing.

Matthew is learning how to play a game and lose graciously. He struggles with it, but then … don't we all? I love him to pieces. We drove on back to their house by about 4:00 and got started on our project of cleaning up and organizing Matthew's room--which took three solid hours, but the job was accomplished in the help and strength of the Lord. So thankful that He cares about everything in our lives, aren't you?