June 12 These four grands

Wednesday:  This is the first FULL week of summer vacation for W. Michigan children, and it was MY first Wednesday of the summer having all four grandchildren for a few hours in the afternoon. I hate to admit this, but I've found that I am very much an "old" lady; mostly because I am rather inflexible about making plans. In other words, I like to have all my ducks in a row, be fully prepared with enough food, drinks, art projects, books to read, etc. That's not bad in and of itself--but I need to loosen up a bit ... somehow. 

ANYWAY ... here are a few pictures I snapped of our time together:

I ordered a new paper airplane "kit" this week and it arrived in time for me to organize it (!!) and put together a few sample planes. It also came with a "launcher", which had to be assembled. Aidan is VERY into paper airplanes presently. Brendan enjoys this too. Both of them are very good at following detailed instructions and have a good "eye" for clean folds and a good model.

I love paper airplanes too! We had a lot of fun flying our planes together around my little house.

Erin has enjoyed ART this year very much. She has come such a long way from last year. I can tell she really enjoys drawing and coloring.

This is Cal's first week NOT being with me ALONE (well--actually, last week Aidan was here because he was sick). BUT ... with four kids here instead of ONE, it means I spend a lot less time with Cal. He did okay, though, with only minor complaints.

I made sure I had magazines and books for Brendan to look through. Also, we did watch the second "Homeward Bound" movie, which was fun.

We ate a good lunch, with two added snack times afterwards (!!) and played for three hours, including some fun time on PhotoBooth: 

It's so much fun to watch kids in front of a camera ... especially with these weird special effects.

Erin was struggling to get INTO the camera lens ... she calmed down when I told her we would do JUST HER with PhotoBooth Friday night (for our scheduled sleepover).

For the above picture, we used the "mirror" effect--which is the most fun, because you can make yourself almost completely DISAPPEAR! Sitting in my rocking chair are ... Aidan's ARMS!

And here are Callaghan's arms ... but not his body or his head or anything else!!!

I love playing this with the kids. It's a great way to get everyone laughing. I love remembering this time with them.

. . . and then we drove back to their homestead for a little while. For the Orthodox, this was a special day of Christ's Ascension--so there was a special liturgy tonight at Holy Trinity followed by a feast. The kids told me all about it beforehand and are very knowledgeable about what this day means. Dylan came home and took the children with him to church. I went back to my house due to my sore hip.

I felt we had a very good first Wednesday of our summer together. I am thankful for the strength the Lord gave me today to stay on my feet and keep up with these busy kiddos. They are a joy.