June 27 at Deer Tracks with Erin

Saturday:  We had planned to arrive at Deer Tracks Junction at exactly 10:00 AM this morning, but two things happen that delayed us until 10:30. First of all, Erin and I were sitting at my desk and looking at some pictures when I noticed that I should really try to brush through Erin's hair and maybe put it in a "pony" before we left for the day. I knew she would be more comfortable with it off her neck. I didn't calculate well just how long it would take to de-tangle Erin's beautiful, thick hair! 

Erin sat very quietly and patiently while we watched a genius musician lead the San Francisco orchestra (improvisation) in a tune they didn't know they were going to play until he gave it to them, each instrument section at a time, imitating ALL of the instruments with perfect pitch--I love to watch this guy as he performs. Anyway, I sectioned off Erin's hair ... about 20 minutes later, she was all combed out and her hair was in a nice pony-tail. BUT it was already 10 AM!

The other impediment to us arriving at 10 AM was continued DETOURS with erroneous signs! I admit to being highly directionally challenged, but signage should NOT indicate a detour unless it truly takes you where you need to be. We finally arrived at 10:30, so it was not a tragedy or anything.

We visited the prairie dogs first. Erin got a kick out of tunneling over to their habitat. She stayed in her bubble for the longest time and watched them scurrying around. They were very interested in checking her out.

The little house the prairie dogs were climbing the last time I was here was ... gone! I watched them last time eating the wood. Perhaps they ate the whole thing!

We walked over to the kangaroo enclosure ... but all of the adult kangas were napping. I was telling Erin about the "baby" roo, but I couldn't find him to show her ... when suddenly ...

this little guy hopped from the outer enclosure to where the adult kangaroo were napping. Isn't he a cutie? His "reddish" fur indicates that he is a male.

Next, we went into the barn that was selling the carrot cups, the budgie sticks, as well as apples. We picked up what we needed, and walked on over to see the pigs. We had to walk right by the Emus in order to get to the pigs, and this is how we were greeted. A LOT of excitement. We had carrots! These are juvenile emu. They could snatch a carrot out of your fingers as fast as lightning!

There is not an abundance of pigs this year at Deer Tracks. We did locate about four little pigs that Erin enjoyed feeding. She is so pleased to be here.

Erin demonstrated her tractor driving skills before we walked over to the budgies.

Budgie posting is next ...

June 26 and 27 Erin's sleepover

Friday:  I picked Erin up at 3:30 for her long-awaited sleepover. She packed up a few of her belongings and was ready to go quite quickly. We really didn't do anything very spectacular Friday night; we just kind of hung out together. Erin is not difficult to entertain because she is quite easy to please.

Having played a game of "Life" a few weeks ago with all FOUR children at once, which was quite chaotic actually, I promised Erin that just the two of us could play the game when she came over. She was hoping to pack her car with babies and pets, perhaps even necessitating an extra car to fit everyone!

In the picture below, Erin has drawn an "Action" card which has told her she must do some percussion "music" with her hands and ask another player (just me) to compete with her as to which of us is the best percussionist. When there is only TWO people playing, the competition is rather limited! I told her she was the best, so she got to spin the wheel and win some extra money.

Here is Erin deciding which house to buy: an economic "flat" or a "luxury villa". Since the "flat" required 100K and didn't really look very inviting, Erin opted to purchase the "luxury villa" for 200K since it looked far more inviting.

I admit that I really don't like a game that's sole purpose is MONEY and gaining MORE of it. But at least this version of "LIFE" has cards for the kids to read and decisions to make, and a few "drama" cards that keep the game interesting. I ended up winning by a mere $30K (we both had around three million dollars at the end).

After we ate our dinner, we tried (rather feebly) to learn how to play "Sleeping Queens 2 (the rescue)" but ended up just looking at the new cards and laughing at all of the funny kings and queens. That was okay--I'm going to have to watch the game be played online somewhere in order to help me figure it out. I find the written rules a bit obscure.

It was nearly 7:30 before we settled down to watch a movie. It's not easy these days to find a movie that is agreeable to both myself AND the grandchild. These kiddos are used to high adventure movies, and the CD's I have here have been watched until we can barely stand to view them any more. I do have many nice CD's with great storylines, but I can't entice any of these four kiddos to watch them with me!

We finally settled on "Mufasa" because I had wanted to see it when it was in the theaters, but never did. Erin had already seen the movie, but she was fine with seeing it again. Having now watched it, I'm not sure I liked it! Perhaps it was just too mystical for me ... I'm not sure. It was LONG; so we paused it and had a nice ice cream cone to give us a break. 

After the movie was over, we hung around for a little while, read a few short books, and then got tucked in at nearly 10pm. 

Saturday Morning:  We are going to Deer Tracks today! 0% chance of rain, and temperatures in the mid-70's. Can't ask for much better than that. We had a little bit of time to use up before we left for the park, so we put together a puzzle ...

... with Erin very happily putting in the VERY LAST PIECE.

This is Erin's "I put in the last piece of the puzzle" smile!

 

June 23 Nine to Six

Tuesday:  I know that it is ridiculous to "title" this post "Nine to Six", but I'm trying to stretch myself you see. ?? Nine hours with four grandchildren can be quite challenging. BUT challenges are good for me! It gives me a chance to put faith into practice. When the Lord tells us to "lean on Him", He means it. It also says in His Word that "tribulation works patience" ... not to attribute nine hours with these beautiful children as a trial or a terrible tribulation. It does, however, test my abilities, fortitude, creativity, unconditional love, and unhealthy self-love. I remind myself that I am their grandmother NOT their parent. Grandmothers can be indulging without spoiling! They can just relax about behavior and rules, etc. and just ENJOY who these little people are. Yes, it's difficult when at least two of the four are at the same time talking to me about completely unrelated topics, expecting my undivided attention and meaningful response. And I'm rather lousy at anything chaotic. And certain noise levels are bothersome to me too. Good grief. I sound like an old fuddy-duddy. I don't want to be that. So, I ask the Lord to change my heart and my mind and give me the kind of love and wisdom I need to make lasting and happy memories with these beautiful children.

Yesterday was a good day! The weather was mild. We even "played" outside for an hour! Let me show you the pictures I took.

Before picking up the kids, the early morning began rather ODD. You see, while I was blow-drying my hair in my back bathroom, I was also using my space heater full blast to warm up the main room of the house. Right in the middle of drying my hair, the power went out! I was baffled. There were NO storms, NO wind ... no reason for us to lose power. However, as I walked through the house, the light was ON in the front room, the oven overhead light was on, the microwave was registering the time, etc. WEIRD. I told all of this to the kiddos as we were driving to my house. Oh! Also, my computer monitor would not go back on! And my CD player was dead too! I finally concluded that I must have triggered a partial fuse failure and that somehow, if I could figure out HOW to trip the fuse back into working, our problem could be solved.

As it worked out, I finally called Monty (our neighborhood fix-it person), and indeed it was a tripped fuse. He was able to figure out which one and fix it.

SO ... the children were able to continue making home movies with my Photo Booth program. Here is Cal watching his recent "movie" with Oscar puppet and our cat puppet having another karate' war. Look how pleased he is! Brendan was also amused watching Cal's production.

Erin was super excited about a new marker set her mom had picked up for her, with a nice new notebook of paper on which to draw. Erin is growing very artistic! She really enjoys sketching and coloring.

Here is Erin with my little finger puppet, "Lamb Chop". She is sketching her! I have the finished product hanging on my refrigerator. Erin gets a lot of joy applying herself artistically. She comes by that one naturally, as quite a few of us in the family have that tendency.

Dear Brendan LOVES Great Wolf Lodge. The last time I was there, I think it was to celebrate Brendan's SEVENTH birthday. I purchased this puzzle there at the gift shop. Brendan still enjoys putting it together and telling the other children (who were too little to remember going) all about the fun stuff to do there. Erin later took the puzzle apart and tried to re-assemble it. Actually, she asked Brendan for help as long as she could put that LAST piece of the puzzle in.

I got out the fire truck puzzle too, and Erin did this one all by herself. Cal (somewhat) got in on the action too.

I love these of Aidan. For some reason, he just loves to come to my house. I am so thankful he does!

After we ate our lunch, I coaxed all of the children to the Leisure Village playground--a few blocks away. I was going to have us walk there, but then I wanted to bring a bunch of stuff for us to do there so I drove us instead. We blasted our stomp rockets for quite awhile! It was fun to have so much space to launch them.

Brendan is quite "old" for playgrounds now, but he never complains. He has the sweetest heart and I love him to pieces. Thankfully, I had a few comic books (Charlie Brown, as well as Garfield) in the car; and Brendan retreated there and read for awhile. We opened up the car windows so that he didn't get stuffy.

I remember when each of these four kiddos were in their 2's and I would have a 1-on-1 with them. We would often come down to this playground and chill out for awhile.

And look! Look what the Lord gave us to examine and enjoy! Our very own caterpillar! Erin fell absolutely in love with her. Brendan too, except not the same as Erin did. The other boys were interested, but wanted nothing to do with actually TOUCHING it! We played with it very gently for quite a long time. When it was time to do other things, I suggested we find a leafy place to transport our little fuzzy friend. Erin INSISTED that the leaf be PINK! And look! She found some pink leaves especially for it. We watched it for quite awhile making itself comfortable in its new pink home.

I brought a bunch of paper airplanes that we tossed around too. Too bad that the wind picked up and we didn't get a very good flight out of any of them. That's okay because the stomp rockets weren't bothered a bit by the wind.

I also keep some really old plastic trucks in my shed, so I brought those too. Cal still likes digging around with them, and Erin enjoyed them too.

I told the kids that we had to play outside for ONE HOUR before returning back to my house, and that's exactly what happened. We came home and I scooped everyone a mint chocolate chip ice cream waffle cone, and had one myself.

We decided to try a round of "Apples to Apples (Junior)" and had a lot of fun doing it.

Look at these two beautiful children!

We also built for a little while with our MagnaTiles and Cubes.

Gregory requested that we get out "OuiSi" ("Oui" = "yes" in French, "Si" = "yes in Spanish) once again and make up stories with our designated cards. He really really enjoys making up stories. Perhaps someday, they will not always be WAR stories! Erin joined us in this game. She is so sweet making up the next part of the story.

Look at little Gregory. He studied each of his six cards to determine who was going to fight WHO and WHERE. He started one of the stories. When it came around to my turn to ADD to his story, I always tried to resolve whatever conflict Cal had created in his little brain. He cracks me up.

We hardly watched any videos today--just a few short "reels" of funny animals and babies that I shared with them. . Brendan did play some basic video games on a site on my computer--pretty harmless and basic graphics, and he seemed to enjoy himself. He also did quite a bit of reading.

We also enjoyed eating French toast (for breakfast), corn on the cob, Ramen noodles, hot dogs, and various chips for lunch, and all kinds of snacks in between--some healthy and some not so much. All and all, it was a very good day!

After returning home from bringing the kids back to their house, I picked up the main rooms, refused to do the sink load of dishes, pigged out on "X" for awhile, got caught up on emails, and went to bed super early. I was pooped. But happy.

June 20 Wedding Shower Card

This is the card I made for Chris and Ella for their wedding shower. I post these cards because ... I work hard on them! Once I give them away, it's handy to be able to use my blog to remember just what I put on each card. Disclaimer: I did not take these pictures, but "stole" them from FaceBook.

These pictures were taken by Ella's sister the afternoon Chris proposed to Ella at Roselle Park. I love this verse from Romans 12.10. If only we all followed this command! I surely pray Chris and Ella will do this in their marriage. 

This photo was on the back of their card. I hope they will find time to read the verses and believe them.

God's best to you two, Chris and Ella!

June 20 Wedding Shower

Saturday:  For weeks now we've been anticipating the wedding shower for Chris and Ella. It's been a very long time since I have been to a wedding shower ... maybe 30 years! 

The shower for Chris and Ella's upcoming wedding took place at Ed Dunneback & Girls Farm. Having never been at this location, I looked it up on MapQuest, only to be MISled by the directions given there and as a result was almost late for the occasion. It began at 11:00 in the morning with yummy food served in a little white barn, decorated for the occasion.

When I arrived, Chris's other grandma (Judy) was already there and had saved places at a table for those of us on our side of the family (a total of FIVE of us). I estimated that there were 40+ of Ella's side of the family, plus some personal friends, which quite filled up the little barn we were in. I sat across the table from Diana and Judy, right next to Kaity. 

There was no "dress code" for this event and people wore whatever they chose. I think Ella and her bridesmaids dressed up fancy for the occasion, but most everyone else was casual. The food was very delicious--pancakes, sausage, bacon, cinnamon rolls, quiche ... I don't think I have eaten a pancake in 20 years or more. I had forgotten how yummy they can be!

The temperature was in the low-to-mid 60's, and I was dressed in layers (the summer kind), but I found myself chilly throughout the entire shower. It was actually colder INSIDE than out--mainly because the sun would come out every now and then and warm the outside up.

Since this venue is a farm, there were lots of pretty flowers available ...

Aren't they pretty?

The very last "event" of the shower was that everyone was invited to make their own take-home bouquet of these flowers. I hesitated doing that because Ted supplies me with flowers almost every week--but as I watched girls making pretty bouquets, I finally couldn't resist. I don't have a picture of my bouquet, so you will have to trust me when I say it is exquisite.

Ella has two sisters (one older and one younger), both of whom are her bridesmaids. I believe the lady in the pink floral dress is Ella's older sister ... something has totally cracked Ella up as they were talking.

Ella's younger sister is in the picture below. All three girls look amazingly alike--facially at least. Their eyes! Their smiles! Their expressions! They also have a younger brother.

Aren't Ella's shoes pretty? I think I might order a similar style to wear for the wedding.

Since the shower was very casual, as far as activity, and the eating went on for quite awhile, I walked outside where it was warmer and took a few pictures. I really want to come back here and explore sometime. What a nice place this is!

The shower was inside "The Corn Crib Barn". I can't believe how many women they squeezed into that little barn!

Kaity and Emma took a few walks as well. They completely missed the game all of us played. The picture below is of Diana and her mom writing down their "guesses" as to what kitchen utensil was in each bag that was passed around. 12 bags. 12 separate kitchen utensils. No peeking in the bag!

Once we had all written down our guesses, Ella opened each bag and showed us the item and announced it's proper name.

Here is my "Guess" sheet. I only guessed four of them correctly. Sheesh. #1 was actually an apple cutter. Duh. I should have known that one. #2 was actually a COOKIE scooper, but I think it could have been used for melons anyway. I have no idea what #3 ended up being. And #4 was called a "soup spoon"--yikes--it was HUGE. I felt sure it was a gravy ladle, but I was wrong once again. #5 alluded me completely, as did #7. Anyway, you get the drift--my score was pretty much an F.

After the game was finished (there were actually TWO women who guessed all 12 items correctly!), the gift opening began. Since there were so many gifts, this took quite awhile. I retrieved most of the ribbons and bows and fastened them to a paper plate so that Ella could throw it to her bridesmaids during the rehearsal (the night prior to the wedding) for a practice run of her REAL bouquet toss the next day. That's the traditional thing to do with ribbons and bows from showers. When it is a BABY shower, however, when you open the present, you have to be careful not to BREAK the bow into pieces because that is supposed to indicate how many children you will eventually bear.

After all of the gifts were opened, the ladies began assembling their free gift bouquets and Ella posed at the flower backdrop for pictures. I don't know who this little girl is, but aren't her boots cute?

This is a very pretty picture of Ella -- She is holding the bouquet I made out of the ribbons and bows.

I think the shower was officially finished by about 1:30. I snapped a few pictures of the farm ...

I definitely want to return and drink in the beauty of this place.

Congratulations on your wedding shower, Chris and Ella!