August 24 with KT

SATURDAY:  Kaity and I had nothing very special planned for our time together today, but we enjoyed it nonetheless! I always enjoy being with Kaity. She is not a difficult person to hang out with!

We ate our dinner:  Kaity ate the leftover chicken and rice, and I fried two eggs on toast for myself. Quick and easy. I asked Kaity if she wanted to play UNO, but she announced she wished to play "Sleeping Queens" instead. Yay. It's been a super long time since we played this game!

We played five rounds of this game. Four went to Kaity. I only won ONE game! I'm going to have to remember to play this game with Dylan and Kelly's little crew--I think they would like it very much.

Kaity also looked through her "art folder" that I still have in my art cupboard. We had fun looking back on her art work and early penmanship attempts. We also found some origami hearts and Kaity asked if we could make some more; so we did! I had to bring up the instructions on Youtube; but then we managed to follow them and do pretty good with it too.

Afterwards, we drove over to Altitude. I did NOT jump at all tonight. I don't want to take any chances whatsoever of injury since my brother David and his wife Carol are coming in less than one week. No way do I want to be limping around when we want to be ACTIVE. I just watched Kaity do her jumping and flips, etc. Our friend Alex showed up about halfway through Kaity's hour of jumping. They hung around for the next 30 minutes doing what they usually do--roughhouse, etc. Alex's little brother, Isaac, was jumping too. Isaac is about six years old and has the shrillest shriek I have ever heard. He practices to make it as shrill as possible too. Yikes. He is a cute kid, though, and I was glad Kaity had a few friends to play with tonight. 

August 22 My birthday

Thursday:  When you are turning 71, that's right, seventy-one--your birthday gets a little bit surreal. First of all, I used to think 71 was super old--back when I was in my early 20's or so. However, I don't really FEEL old. Granted, I've been sick most of the summer with one thing or another; but nothing really related to old age.

I set my alarm for 7:00 this morning, and at 7:02 I received a Happy Birthday message from Kaity! How nice it was to receive it first thing on my birthday. Thank you, Kaity!

Ruthanne and Terry took me out for lunch at "The Score", one of our most favorite places to eat. We usually eat there every single Sunday after church. It has really good food, and the three of us love their boneless chicken wings (they kind of look like a BLOB because they most certainly are NOT chicken WINGS) because they are SO juicy and flavorful. But today, I decided to try their fish 'n chips since it was my birthday and I love fish. Ruthanne gave me a pretty birthday card while we were waiting to order, our waitress noticed it and asked whose birthday it was! She informed us that the birthday person either gets a free entree' (up to $14.99) or a free dessert. How nice and very unexpected. We enjoyed our lunch, and then came back home to our separate places.

I picked Kaity up at 4:00. This is her first week back to school [2024-2025], so she had lots to tell me about. I love listening about Kaity's days and very thankful she wants to share them with me. We did our usual "hanging out" stuff, ate our meal, and then drove over to Altitude.

None of our "friends" were there tonight, so I knew Kaity would not be keen on staying her full hour; but while she was there, she practiced some cool moves ...

Since we didn't stay our full hour, we had a little extra time on our hands; so we drove over to McDonald's where Kaity ordered a McFlurry (M&M) and a medium fry. We sat in the parking lot while she ate these and then I took her back to Di's house.

So ... what did I get myself for my birthday this year? USUALLY, I buy another cool TOY for the kids to play with when they come over;  but this year, I ordered a shirt from Chris's website at Olivet. Look! It has Chris's PAHMAN 31 on it! I'm so excited to wear it--it's long sleeve, so I'll get a lot of use out of it.

I received a lot of nice phone calls and text messages from friends--it's always special to be greeted on my birthday. Dylan did a FB post with me and his whole tribe with a birthday message. I got a nice birthday hug from Jesse. And these dear flowers? My good friend, Brenda, brought them to me the day after my birthday. We sat at my table, watched the birds feeding outside the window, drank Earl Grey tea, and ate Greek baklava (mmmm!). And talked. And listened. Brenda is very good for my heart and soul. She is a very wise person and I have received more help from her than all my "counselors" put together. And I love her.

I enjoyed August 22 very much this year. Thankful for another year to seek the Lord and find Him, because He isn't far from any of us--He is so good.

August 21 Deer Tracks Junction [Part 2]

 [CONTINUED]: SO ... this entire post is pictures of Budgies and young Callaghan. This place turned him into a bird lover--I'm so glad!

His first encounter was a tiny bit intimidating--2 birds at once on his small feeding stick was a tiny bit overwhelming; but he quickly overcame being squeamish and got along real well with all of the birds.

Cal was very amused by them!

I find them very beautiful, don't you?

Look at Cal's face (below!) ...

It didn't take very long before Cal's stick of seeds was EMPTY of seeds. This did not bother him one single bit! He just kept holding out his stick at every bird he saw . . .

We had one little white bird who kept sneaking into my camera bag--no kidding! It was so funny! Cal tapped my arm and said: "Gramma! There's a bird in your bag!" I didn't believe him! But when I opened the top of my camera case, there it was! I looked around at other people, and the birds were actually working themselves into any pocket or bag that had an opening!

Cal's little face ...

Here is a very friendly Budgie ...

This budgie seemed to delight himself in my camera lens ... look how close he gets to it!

Beautiful creatures!

I love this wee boy so much ... 

Cal doesn't give up easy ... he was determined that the birds should hop on his empty-of-seeds stick!

FINALLY, one of the yellow birds did! Cal was super pleased.

We probably spent 30 minutes in this bird pavilion. Cal didn't want to leave!

Look at how delighted he is!

I love these pictures so much. What a wonderful time we had today, Cal!

//

Today was the first day of school for Brendan (grade 7), Aidan (grade 2), and Erin (grade 1). Cal and I arrived at their house at about 4:00. Cal was soundly napping in the back seat of my car. Aidan and Erin's bus arrived at about 4:15 and we played at their house until Kelly heated up some leftovers from the Greek Fest (last weekend). I had a nice, long visit with Kelly while we ate--we don't often get to visit! 

What a nice day, Lord. Thank you so much!

August 21 Cal at Deer Tracks

Wednesday:  A few weeks ago, I was showing the kids pictures of the time I took Erin to Deer Tracks Junction for her birthday treat. Cal was super interested in the pictures and told me he wanted to go there too. I told Cal that once the older kids returned to school, he and I would go together and have a blast. Today was that day!

I'm going to do this post in two parts--we'll begin with the corn/grain bin play place:

In these pictures, Cal reminds me so much of Brendan at this age--his intensity, his imagination, his long attention span, his great facial expressions, etc.

Look at this little cutie! He had such a great time in this corn bin. I was in it too! However, I found that once I sat down, I SANK down about 10" and I found it difficult to get myself back OUT--I worked on it subtly so as not to alarm anyone around me (I finally maneuvered my way out).

Look how much fun our little construction site manager is having ...

At one point, Cal was taking handfuls of corn and raising his hands up to about his face level and then letting the corn fall. He explained to me that he was demonstrating a volcano erupting ...

Oh.my.word.Cal! You have the cutest little face. Oh my.

Cal decidedly liked bouncing on this little horse. I'm so glad. It fit him perfectly.

After we left the corn bin, we walked out of the 90-acre wood and found these cute goats ...

See how Cal cracked up with the way they put their heads through the openings and gobbled up the carrots?

He cracked up! I love watching him crack up.

We walked over to the bunny pavilion; but Cal was NOT interested in having a bunny on his lap ... so he petted them by stretching out his arms to feel their softness.

The bunnies are up on a little platform on which there is a bottle of ice water for them to snuggle with.

Next, we walked over to where the pigs were. We met three little pigs who were very interested in Cal. They followed him everywhere. Somehow I missed snapping any pictures of that--Cal was laughing so hard! It was pretty cute, I assure you.

Cal played awhile in this giant sandbox area ...

AND Cal climbed about 25 steps up, up, up, to this slide and came down, down, down all by himself! He was super pleased.

Cal also liked the miniature house. He told me there were very "cool" toys up in the loft.

We fed a whole bunch of animals until we finally ran out of carrots!

Here is Cal riding their fake triceratops ...

On our way back to my house, I asked Cal about which animals was his favorite. He took a little while to answer, but then told me it was the "BIRDS!" because "they were super funny!"

The next post is all of Cal and the Budgie birds! He was so darling with them. I wish I could print every one of these--so cute.