November 22 Thanksgiving Eve

Wednesday: The day before Thanksgiving! Since I am invited over to Dylan and Kelly's tomorrow for dinner and I will NOT be cooking a turkey this year, I baked a nice apple pie yesterday (requested by Brendan), and I am bringing a lot of fruit and also rolls--anyway, this freed me up to NOT be consumed with cooking all day today.

INSTEAD, these four grandchildren came over for a brief visit--only four hours--and they were delivered here by their very amazing nanny, Miss Jen, at about noon. Dylan drove over at just a little after 4:00 to retrieve them. This was significant to me because it meant that I did not have to cram four active children into my car and drive the 30 minutes to and from their house with "less than happy" travelers (which is very stressful for me--I'm still struggling to figure out why this is so difficult for me). 

It always takes me a little while to get my place set up for grandchildren visits. The problem being that I have TOO MANY toys and books and games -- if they are all gotten out at the same time, there is not room to walk or sit or ... THINK! So ... I try to choose the favorite ones and switch them out throughout the visit with others (when they are not looking) ...

With this little bunch of sweeties, ART supplies are very much appreciated and utilized. I'm glad I have to many nice colored pencils, markers, stencils, paper ... everything they need to create and express themselves artistically.

And I always set up the trains for Cal -- this layout was very small this week, just because of having three more people walking around in here. Also, Cal's little car garage is out where he can "service" all of the cars that need gas and car washes ...

My dear Brendan (yes! He is STILL mine, even though he is growing up SO quickly and I don't often get to have him over) really enjoys art. I love to watch him when he draws. He's so happy with this activity.

The treehouse caused a little bit of conflict (because Cal is used to having it all to himself), but he and Aidan worked through that and enjoyed playing together with it.

While we were eating our lunch, I read "Those Darn Squirrels Fly South" to them and we cracked up. This is the 3rd squirrel book by Adam Rubin. Every single one of them should win an award. They are so funny. The illustrations (by Daniel Salmieri) are hilarious. The storyline is perfect in every book. Mr. Rubin uses made-up words all over the place that sound ridiculous at just the right places. We laugh and laugh with these books. These little children "get" all of the nuances of the words he is using and it just cracks them up. I love to watch Brendan's enjoyment of them ... and Aidan is just over the moon about them. It was my niece, Shelley, who recommended them to me years and years ago. 

Erin very much wanted me to show her "my jewels" again today. She really LOVES jewelry. I seriously have zero jewels, but I do have some rather junky sparkly jewelry stashed away in odd little boxes and containers and Erin just loves to open them up and examine each one.

We had our puppet, Hootie (the owl) join us. Erin made a bunch of crowns and necklaces fit this little puppet. She was super pleased.

Brendan has always, always, always LOVED this chair in my room. Ever since he was my "Little Fellow", he would cuddle up here. I also made a special quiet place today in the top bunk bed in the spare room and put some of his favorite LEGO magazines and a few books up there in case he needed his own space for a little while. I had been "worried" that the children would fight over being in the upper bunk today, so I declared that only Brendan was allowed up there today. I got a little bit of resistance from Erin, but she handled it just fine after a few minutes and everything worked out fine.

Ed Emberley's "Thumbprint Drawing Book" is a favorite too. Here are Erin and Aidan making cute pictures using their thumbs ...

Mr. Aidan is a perfectionist ... but he is quite the artist. He has held a pencil correctly since he was 18 months. He is very intense about his art, but he is also very happy when doing it. He doesn't get frustrated with himself because he is very creative and his imagination hasn't been stunted (and I hope this remains). He does "copy" quite a bit, but he's GOOD at it. So this is a good thing. He seems to be a "realist" with his art and I can relate so well to that! I want to draw a tree that looks like a real TREE for pity's sake!

Brendan serenaded us for while with this little pipe that I purchased awhile ago. He made it sound like all kinds of birds singing! Brendan is very musical.

Little Cal was ... amazing ... I had wondered how he would do with his three siblings invading "his" territory of play. But what I found was that he just wandered from area to area and played quite quietly all by himself (most of the time).

Cal is a very interesting little person. I never cease to be surprised by him. 

After Dylan got the kids all packed up in his vehicle and they drove away, I walked around my little "messed up" house and gave thanks for the WONDERFUL way the Lord comes near and gives strength when I ask Him. The little cares that "worried" me as I thought ahead about these hours with the children, I spoke those concerns to the Lord--He heard every single one of them (amazing!) and helped me not to get lost in the chaos that often happens, but just to focus on these dear hearts and love them.