August 28 Those darn squirrels!!!

Thursday: So ... today I am doing some of the last-minute things that I need to accomplish before picking my brother up from the airport. Plus, I was invited to join a few women for dinner tonight that I used to work with over at the doc's office (RVO) years ago ... AND before I go to dinner, I need to drive over to Jesse's and say "hi" to he and Kaity.

I was working on a few things with my computer when I heard a scratching sound and I knew exactly what it was! LOOK! The squirrel guard I got about six weeks ago is just as effective (NOT) as the last one I had. I actually caught this squirrel in the act today--and I was glad I did, because I could not figure out HOW he was getting past the squirrel guard. Do you know how he did it? He just made a running JUMP and without any stumbles whatsoever was UP and exactly where he wanted to be!

"Hell-o! I think we need a few more peanuts out here!"

"Hell-o, anybody home? I know you're in there!"

"Good grief, lady! Can't you see we are hungry out here?!"

Look at these two, unashamedly eating all of the bird food! Those DARN squirrels!

Sigh. They are CUTE, though, aren't they?

 

August 27 Deep Cleaning

Wednesday: Today, I dedicated the entire day to a DEEP clean of my little house. My brother, David, is arriving tomorrow night at midnight (at which time I will fetch him from the airport) and I wanted my little place spic and span for his visit.

I truly do not know WHEN the last time was that I mopped these floors. I know it should be done on a regular basis; but it's such a pain to move the furniture to get underneath ... and with these "wood" floors that are almost impervious to showing dirt, I just don't bother with washing them. I vacuum every week! I generally keep the dust and cobwebs to a minimum around here; but I knew I really needed to do a better job. One difficulty I was facing was finding the right "tool" to use for the actual washing. I have had one of those Swiffer mops for years--but find them SO irritating! The cleaning "heads" never stayed velcroed in place for me--they just flop all over the place! 

I did a little research and found a different sort of "mop" and I can't even remember the name of it presently--but it worked much better and I actually feel that it deeply cleaned my floors.

These are the "before" pictures, and I never got around to taking any "after" pictures. I cleaned the legs of all the chairs, getting the nasty hairs and dust that were stuck on the bottom of each leg (!!), moved furniture around, and did a room at a time. It turned out very nice and I am pleased. I don't think I will do this on a monthly basis (although I probably should); but perhaps a few times per year at least.

August 26 with the Kids

Tuesday: I think we have officially designated Tuesday as the day I will be caring for the kiddos after school each week. I've arranged with Dylan and Kelly to come over a few hours early so that I can do my "Grandma Housekeeper" routine, which will free me up to play with the kids later on when they are home from school.  So that is what I did today! I arrived at 1:00 and cleaned until 4:15 or so when the little kids got off the school bus. Brendan had Cross Country after school, so I didn't see him until Dylan brought him home later in the afternoon. Since Dylan and Kelly had a dinner invitation tonight, they asked Sarah to come relieve me by 6:00. I haven't seen Sarah since Dylan and Kelly returned from Europe, so I was really glad to see her again!

I brought a few of the kids' favorite games with me so that I could lure them away from the TV. They DO have set TV restrictions and I DO enforce them as Dylan and Kelly ask me to; but even then, it seems that they are so let down when they are not watching TV that it is difficult to get them interested in anything else. EXCEPT ... games! All of these beautiful kids LOVE to play games. Yes! I love to play games too!

Cal was telling me that he got to play JENGA at school today. Thankfully, that is one of the games I brought with me to play with the kids this afternoon.

So, Cal, Erin and I played a few "quick" games (because the tower kept falling down--but that's what the entire games is about!).

Then Aidan decided he would play too. We had quite a long game going there for awhile. Everyone was being VERY cautious in which block they picked to pull out of the tower.

Sarah arrived promptly at 6:00! She is super nice and really good with the kids. She enjoyed watching us play a few games, and I enjoyed interacting with her very much.

Here were are playing TETRUS TOWER, another very fun "balancing" kind of game. The kids really enjoy the colorful unusual shapes, and you just never know what is going to happen when you pick a card and it designates which shape you must add to the tower. It's very fun!

Brendan finally got home, so I got to see him for a little while at least. He grabbed a piece of graft paper and began making 3-D pictures on it.

Kelly had pre-ordered pizza from Costco and Dylan and she brought it home for us to eat--this was before Sarah arrived. So dinner was all taken care of, and I got to play awhile with the kids. I hope we can continue this throughout the school year. I will try to think of a variety of interesting toys/games I can bring each week for us to play with.

August 25 Beautiful birthday gift!

Sunday:  Yes, I know it is two days past my birthday; but today, at church, I received a super beautiful birthday gift! The giver? She and I have been friends for many years; and recently, we have become closer friends. She is a 2nd grade school teacher out in Kentwood and has taught little kids for more than 20 years. Cheryl is a beautiful person inside and out. She said she "found" this piece of art a few weeks back and thought of me immediately and bought it on the spot!

This is a "print" of the Detroit River Light which I honestly do not remember ever having seen--which is surprising seeing that we boated up and down the Detroit River for years--from the time I was 12 until 16 or so. I truly do not remember ever seeing it. Perhaps I just wasn't "into" lighthouses at that time! 

Anyway, I moved a few things around on my walls to make room for this print. It's quite large! It now resides right next to my front door. I think it fits PERFECTLY in my little Beach House. I love it.

August 24 Neighborhood pics

Saturday: I headed over to the exercise building this afternoon to ride three miles on their cool exercise bike (I started this regimen last week and actually DID it on four different occasions in one week!), only to find out when I reached the place that I had forgotten to bring the special key that opens the door. Pooh. I was too lazy to walk back to my house to fetch the key, so instead I walked around my little village streets and took a few pictures.

The first picture, however, is of a caterpillar I found crawling on my front steps. I remembered a very long time ago when I brought a caterpillar inside the house and put it in a glass container and the boys and I watched it make its chrysalis ... and then hatch out into an amazingly beautiful moth several weeks later. We had tried this once before, but I neglected to "water" it and our poor caterpillar died before ever making its chrysalis. Anyway, I thought I would try this once again to show my grandchildren how fun it is to see.

Can you see him? He's the fuzzy little yellow thing at the bottom of this glass jar--I'm shooting looking down into the jar. I have added a few branches and more leaves since I took this picture. I hope the little guy survives so I can see what hatches out.

Instead of biking, I decided to walk around behind the row of houses that are next to the greenhouse so that I could see their corn fields and the beauty back there. Some of our "lots" look out on this every single day!

Isn't it a lovely sight?

Autumn is just around the corner now. We are beginning to feel a little "chill" in the air after such a hot, sticky few weeks in early August.

I love corn fields!

August 23 The next day

Saturday:  Cal slept until about 7:30 am this morning. I had gotten up before 7, just in case. So I had a little time to myself before the day began with Cal. 

Cal had told me last week that he wanted to make a sock puppet, so I got all of my supplies gathered together in preparation for that only to find out that Cal wasn't one bit interested in making a sock puppet! He claimed it was BRENDAN who wanted to make one. So I left the puppet supplies out on the main table just in case Cal changed his mind about the idea.

Eventually, after looking at all of the puppet making materials Cal decided he would make a sock puppet FOR Brendan. I was so busy helping Cal out with the puppet that I neglected to take any pictures of us during the process. At the very last minute, I remembered I hadn't gotten a picture and just snapped this one real quick. Cal named it "Brendan" (naturally), and it has black yarn hair, a blue pom-pom nose, large google eyes, a red tongue ... and even a smart-looking mustache! Since we used my glue gun to stick the stuff on the sock, I did the gluing part with Cal telling me where on the sock to place everything.

After we were finished with the puppet, Cal announced that since he had not watched a movie LAST night, surely he needed to watch one this morning! So I let him do that because ... well ... why not? He elected to see "The Secret Life of Pets 2" and we enjoyed watching it together. I did a little bit of pick-up while the movie was on and once it was finished, we headed for Altitude. It's been awhile since Cal has been to Altitude. He was very excited to jump.

We arrived somewhere around 11am. I was surprised and pleased that Altitude was not too crowded. Cal had fun throwing balls around and climbing up and down ...

We spent most of our time in this area with the foam cubes. Cal does not enjoy heights whatsoever, so I didn't have to worry about him trying dangerous stuff while we were here. He just played and played right here for the longest time and made a few friends while he was at it.

Cal's glasses kept falling off his face, so I finally just put them in my pocket rather than have them break or get lost. I'm so used to Cal wearing his glasses, that it took me some time to adjust to his little face without them!

I walked Cal over to the NEW "stairway" apparatus to see what he thought of it. I didn't take a picture of the whole thing because once Cal combined gingerly to the top stair and looked out over where he was supposed to jump, he quickly backed himself DOWN and wouldn't go near it afterwards. I remember Aidan being a little bit like this at Cal's age too--but last week when Aidan was here with me, I think this was his favorite thing to do!

We did play one game of Air Hockey. Guess who won?!?! Look at that face of victory.

But then we were right back to the foam cubes ...

Cal decided to build towers and then have the delight of knocking them down. Naturally, this gave him a high amount of pleasure. 

Doesn't Cal have the cutest little face?

Here he is after a MASSIVE tower explosion (or as Cal calls it: "DEplosion").

We had a lot of fun laughing together here at Altitude.

After our hour was up at Altitude, we came back to my place for hot dogs and a root beer float. We built for a little while with our MagnaCubes and a few other toys and then packed Cal up to return to his house, arriving at around 2pm. 

It was good to have you for a sleepover, Cal. You are a JOY!