Thursday's jumbled up joy!

I'm three days behind posting pictures of what's been going on around the Jones Junction! It's kind of been like a three-ring circus around here ...
Thursday was one of those hot, humid, sticky Michigan July days. The Pahman kiddos were invited by a friend and neighbor of the Hands to swim in their beautiful swimming pool in the morning. We don't have a big pool here at our house, but thankfully, we do have a bunch of water toys ~ so we played with them all afternoon!
We got out the kiddie pool and filled it up with water and loaded it up with fish and boats and squirt bottles ... and one or two very small wind-up alligators and fish!
We just had one toy fishing pole, but everyone took a turn catching fish that we were cooking up for dinner! Christopher was SURE that one of our fish was really a shark, but he wanted to eat it up as well!

We made sure we used a lot of sunscreen on these very fair and beautiful children ...
Our water table is a lot of fun for little kids ... especially children who like to see cause and effect and like hands-on learning ...

We were happy to see and play with Uncle Shane later in the afternoon. The boys especially enjoy roughing around with him.
Matthew thought it was SO cool the way the water power (hydraulics!) would make the wheel go around. How fascinating! We played outside in the water until the kids' teeth were chattering, and then it was time for dinner.

We had a surprise visit from our dear friend, Karen! She came bearing a basketful of the most wonderful gifts for the grandchildren! I regret very much that I failed to take a picture of the beautiful wrapped-up basket. It was just loaded with puzzles, cool toys, coloring books, light sticks, curly straws, snack food, candy jewelry and all kinds of other yummy treats ~ in triplicate! And at the very bottom of the basket was this amazing gift for me ... The Grandmother's Bible!

It is the NIV version of the Bible, which I love, but it also has daily devotional writings from well-known Christian grandmothers, along with practical tools to help me pray for my grandchildren, AND beautiful stories that will help me share Bible truths with them too. WOW! I cannot wait to dig into this Bible.
The elephant (Emma's), Tiger (Christopher's) and Bear (Matthew's) are made of real squishy material, very soft and pliable, and the kids have carried these around the house since they got them ~ these were in the basket from Karen too! We had so much fun opening up all of the stuff and playing! If you have never met Karen, you have quite possibly missed the kindest person I have ever known ~ ever!

After all of our happiness at being able to play with Uncle Shane, and having an unexpected visit from Karen, we got a call from Aunt Sabrina! We got our computers connected and let the cousins talk to each other! It was pretty hilarious! These little cousins haven't been in the same room since the prior Christmas ... very ironic seeing that ALL of them live in Texas!

They did remember each other, at least, thanks to all of the pictures we have hanging in our house and all of the ones Sabrina has hanging around hers. It seems a shame that cousins can't see each other more often, doesn't it?
This is Christopher as he is watching Jackson gives us a high-five through the computer! He thought this was pretty cool.

Since it was SO hot, we played downstairs in the playroom for awhile before bed. Believe it or not, I STILL have some toys that I haven't gotten out yet for the grandchildren. It's always fun to just grab one out of hiding to surprise them with ... which is what I did with this Zube Tube, which actually belongs to Uncle Nick. Christopher thought it was just about the best thing he'd ever seen!

On the side of this tube, it says you can "shake it, yell into it, and pump it" which all of us did for about an hour! We weren't quite sure what "pumping it" meant, but we tried a bunch of stuff so that we felt sure it had been pumped. When you yell into it, your voice echoes back all wiggly and stuff. The kids thought it was pretty great.
Here's Matthew with the lace-up cards we have. He was making necklaces out of them. I didn't have the heart to tell him that boys don't wear necklaces ... (well, MOST boys) ... he was having such a good time!
And then FINALLY, Grandpa Jones came through with showing the kids his very preliminary, not-at-all-finished, extremely well-built (meticulously) train layout with a working train!
Oh my word! The kids just thought it was the greatest thing ... Grandpa even had a car with two guys that would pop out of the roof and shoot at each other. We even had a train wreck!
Matthew is in between Christopher and Emma ... I kept missing the picture when he was actually standing and watching. He kept bending down to see the train come through the lower level. What a fun Thursday ... whew! I'm exhausted ~ I have a bunch of other pictures to show you from Friday as well as this morning, but they are just going to have to wait until ... tomorrow!