Friday: My Forest Hills grandkids had today "off" from school; so I got to have all FOUR of them over for a visit today. They have gotten so much easier (for me) to handle this year; mostly because they are older, and especially Cal has gotten less demanding of my sole and complete attention. The three younger grands are very close in age (almost 5, almost 7, and 8) and they compete with each other on just about everything; yet more and more when they are here at the Beach House, we settle into kind of a pattern of activity that flows pretty smoothly for 3 to 4 hours. It's not like a don't have enough toys or anything ...
One of the best purchases I've made lately are these magnets (below). $20 for all of these fun magnets! I love experimenting with them and watching what they do. These are super strong magnets too. All of the kiddos enjoy playing with them. Aidan decided to stack them all and see if they would still stay upright.
They did -- at least briefly -- until they didn't. Not one to give up, Aidan reconstructed them and kept at it for quite awhile (even with Cal whining that it was HIS TURN with them).
Before I brought the kids over, I set up a few places of interest around the house for them. Erin always requests that we paint while she is over; but usually, I tell her that we will do that when it's just the two of us together because it's so crowded with four kids over, and I can only handle so much going on at once. However, I thought this through and now that Erin is six (almost SEVEN) she is much more capable of "responsible" painting. So here she is! Happy as can be!
Cal finally got his TURN with the magnets and built a tall tower of his own. He was super excited to show all of us.
Cal is such a delightful little person. I love his laughter and his quick sense of humor. I do not know what he was laughing about here, but ... isn't he darling?
Here's Cal showing me his tall magnet tower. The top of it had fallen, so he just added it to the bottom.
The other three kids "landed" in the toy room and played for a very long time in there without any conflicts or disagreements. The boys were busy building with the space LEGOs and Erin was "fishing."
Here is Erin's finished painting. The older boys pointed out to me that this is NOT a raccoon--which I never would have noticed. They claim that this is a picture of either a squirrel or a chipmunk--but definitely not a raccoon.
Aidan challenged me to a game of Chess, so we played it for awhile. I asked Erin to grab my camera, put the strap around her neck, and take a picture of the two of us playing Chess. I had no idea if she was actually capable of this or not--however, I have allowed her to take pictures with my camera before. It turns out that she was more focused on other objects rather than our Chess game. The few she snapped in our direction was completely blurred and really not usable. I have posted a few good "shots" Erin took. Here is one of Puny the Pig (one of Erin's favorite pigs) ...
And here is "Eden", my microwavable cuddle kitty-cat.
Erin also thought I might like to have a picture of all the animals who were watching the Chess game. Aidan dropped out of the game and asked Brendan if he would like to finish it for him. Brendan is a more formidable foe than Aidan (although Aidan is a very decent Chess player). So Brendan and I played it out for awhile, but we are pretty evenly matched (!!) and finally decided to just end the game as a "draw" and go onto other activities.
We spent about 30 minutes watching all of the short videos of funny animals, etc. that I save to show them. We had a good time laughing and watching those. And then it was already nearly 3:30 and time to drive back to their house. We really didn't have a deadline for doing that today; but it helps to divide our time between my place and theirs for interest sake.
Thankfully, Erin grabbed my cell phone and snapped this picture of Brendan! It's the only picture of I have this beautiful child from today. I love him so much.
Once at their own house, the kids played a lot on their own giving me the opportunity to do a tiny bit of clean-up in their kitchen (in order to be helpful to Kelly). It was such a good day!
Thank you, kindest Father, for these dear grandchildren.
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