August 25 Our last Tuesday

Tuesday:  Well, NOT the last Tuesday EVER--just not our all-day Tuesday until either winter or spring break, or next summer! We played over at my house for most of the day, just hanging out and doing our usual activities.

In the picture below, Greg is playing the part of a wee baby and Erin is his adoring mom.

Aidan found some free video games to do on my computer, so he played these for awhile.

Aidan also wanted to play a game of "Battleship" with me. We had a lot of fun playing this game, which surprised me because it is SO slow-moving (compared to video games); but Aidan especially loves this game. I think it's the secrecy and intrigue that attracts him.

Small Gregory enjoyed watching to see whose battle ships all sank first ...

Erin enjoyed watching our ships battle it out too.

After we finished our Battleship game, Gregory requested that we play "Blank Slate." Brendan was occupied with playing a solitaire game in the other room, so just Erin, Aidan, Greg and I played this game. Gregory is hilarious playing this game. A lot of the reason is because he isn't yet reading or writing; so instead, he draws pictures or attempts to write the word that he has in his head. He really likes this game!

Brendan made up his own solitaire game, but then I showed him a wooden one I had purchased years ago over at Robinson's.

Meanwhile, Aidan was building as he played the game--I think he won today!

Erin does really well playing "Blank Slate." She writes a word AND draws a picture!

We had our usual root bear floats too!

Grand Rapids Township Park: We had to have Brendan to his cross-country practice by 3:30. After we dropped him off at school, the little kids and I went to a playground for about an hour.

Look at Cal with this digger!

We had a good day today. I'm sad summer has to leave us already, but sometimes it's good to get back into the regular fall schedule. Erin is going to spend the night Friday, so we'll continue our sleepovers throughout the school year like we did last year. 
 

August 24 Meadowbrook Open House

Monday:  With the start of school just a few days away, I got to go to Gregory, Erin, and Aidan's Open House over at their elementary school. Kelly had clients at the same time. Dylan needed to be over at the high school for Brendan's Open House, so I was asked to fill in and go to "the littles" school with them to meet their teachers, find their lockers, and look around the school.

We started with Gregory because he is in Kindergarten this year, and his time slot for meeting his teacher and seeing around his classroom was first. Erin and Aidan played on the playground while Greg and I filled out his transportation form and got everything done that needed doing.

Greg is beginning Chinese emersion this year, so he has TWO classrooms and TWO teachers. He seems very pleased to have English in the morning and Chinese in the afternoon.

And look at the Chinese dragon at the front of his Chinese class!

We met Erin's teachers next. What was an absolute SHOCK to me was when the Chinese teacher only spoke Chinese to Erin and Erin seemed to understand each and every word! Wow. Impressive. Look at her pretty smile (below).

Erin was most pleased that THIS year she gets to choose where she sits! Her English teacher explained that the seating will change every single week.

What nice classrooms you have, Erin!!

We finally made it to Aidan's classroom, but he didn't seem even a little bit interested in looking around--he was more concerned about finding his neighborhood friend (who is actually in Erin's grade); so he was a bit distracted.

Aidan did allow me to catch a few photos of him AND meet his teacher (for 2 seconds) before running out of the classroom in search of his friend. Sigh.

This is Aidan's teacher's greetings to her new students. How nice of her to show the kids her family.

Meadowbrook actually has two playgrounds: one for the pre-K and Kindergartners (shown above), and one for the upper grades (that playground is behind the school).

We were able to accomplish the entire Open House in about 45 minutes!  I'm glad I could see all of kid's classrooms and meet their teachers too. 

August 22 My Birthday

Saturday:  Today I am officially 40-33, OR you can say 33-40, OR 50-23 ... any number of combinations that make up SEVENTY-THREE. The fact that I am 73 hardly makes sense to me--it's just a bizarre reality that is ... well ... REAL. I'm thankful for very good health. Other than a few increased body aches and pains, I'm in pretty good shape--that is, IF you don't watch me try to get up off the floor. I won't describe it--I will spare you the details. I look completely absurd in the process! Sigh.

Ruthanne and Terry drove to Grand Rapids yesterday to take me out for a birthday lunch. This was super nice of them! We went to our former favorite restaurant, "The Score" and each ordered their delicious fish and chips. We enjoyed our lunch, and they came inside my little house where we visited for awhile in the afternoon before they drove back to their place in Detroit.

My actual birthday began with picking Beverly up for her haircut appointment. I dropped her off and then ran a few errands while her cut was being done. Afterward, Bev treated me to lunch Qdoba's. This was very unnecessary but very kind of her. We had such a nice time together today. We have become good friends and I am very thankful for her.

I'm posting just a few pictures about my birthday--I've shown this in a prior post, but the photo below shows the air conditioner Emma gifted me for my birthday EARLY--but how thoughtful and loving of her!

When I got home from being with Beverly in the early afternoon, I was going up my front deck steps and caught this little rascal under my deck chair eating the peanuts I had placed in a bowl for him. He's getting quite "tame" with me and will even let me get pretty close and have a little friendly chat. I stood on the steps and talked for quite awhile with him before he ran off. I love these little animals. What a nice birthday gift he was today.

Dylan, Kelly, and the children arrived at about 4:30 with pizza and breadsticks in hand, AND this gorgeous bouquet of flowers. Isn't it lovely?

Aren't the colors stunning?!?! I absolutely love it.

We ate our pizza, and I cooked up some corn-on-the-cob for whoever wanted a cob, the kids played for awhile, but then we ALL sat down and played a round of "Apples to Apples." Erin was the winner today! I love to play this game with this bunch. They are so funny when they make their choices. Look at Erin and Aidan laughing! I love them so much.

Look at Cal cracking up (below).

Brendan too! I love these kids to pieces. Their mom and dad too! How nice to spend a few hours of my birthday with them. The perfect gift.

And look at all the cards I received! These came throughout the week. I have cards from Margaret, Bethany, Eva, Julie, Ted and Bev, Ruthanne and Terry, Gail Storey, Pam, and my college roommate, Robbie!

AND here is Erin's card she made for me when she was here on Tuesday. Erin has become quite an artist! I love this card so much, and will keep it always.

Here is Aidan's card from the same day. He drew this up in about two seconds, and it pictures the toy we got over at Deer Tracks--the little dinosaur that blasts off. "There she is!" (meaning ME). The stick figurine in the right corner is me yelling: "Oh NO!" The next page notes that the dinosaur blaster missed me and instead landed in the ACME trash container. Hysterical.

This bottom card is from Gregory. All I can say about it is that it is COLORFUL and that he was very happy while coloring it. I am unsure what exactly it says, and when I asked Greg to interpret, he was totally blank.

After we finished playing our "Apples to Apples" game, we all enjoyed a root beer float--YUM. My birthday "party" ended by about 7:30 and everyone went home. I did a little clean-up and then had the pleasure of talking to my college roommate, ROBBIE, for about an hour and a half afterward. Robbie lives near Tampa in Florida. We have maintained our friendship all throughout these past 55 years! I love her dearly, and she loves me. What a wonderful gift friendship is!

August 18 with the kiddos

Tuesday:  We had a very nice time together today. The grandchildren were full of creativity and had a lot of energy and happiness to spread around to their grandma.

Over the weekend, at Aidan's sleepover, our time out at Deer Tracks kind of got shortened--I hadn't realized that they close at 6pm; so since we had to leave so suddenly, I let Aidan pick out a very inexpensive gadget in the Gift Shop. He picked out a dinosaur that you can stick to just about any surface and then wait for it to ... J U M P !!

They all got a real bang out of this ... for quite a while actually!

After we ate our French toast, Brendan was inspired to design the Hot Wheels track of the Century. Aidan joined in (uninvited) and made some contributions to its stability. However, after working on this project for 20 minutes, no matter how they reinforced and braced the track, no car ever successfully made it all the way to the end. That's OK because it was just fun trying to build it.

I demanded (!!) that each of them design a birthday card for me, so they got to work on that project at the art table. I'll show you the finished cards in my birthday post later in the week.

This little guy (with the super cute face) decided to make a very complicated jingle bell truck ...

Gregory was very pleased with himself during the entire building project.

Later on, in the playroom, Aidan worked on a separate Hot Wheels track. Aidan has amazing skills as a builder and designer. He is very ... very ... persistent and does not give up on an idea easily.

After our lunch, we got out "Apples to Apples" and cracked up together for an hour or so. 

Cal can't read the cards yet--and many times he would ask me to read them to him, but finally he just decided to throw in any old card he felt like--the result was pretty hilarious.

But Cal takes this game VERY seriously (see below) and participates with all of his heart.

Erin does a really good job too. It helps that she is a good reader.

Aidan is the one whose humor is most sparked by this game. I truly love to watch him crack up. He's been like this since he was a wee baby. I love this about him. Brendan, who was sitting next to me and somehow didn't end up in any pictures, won the game. He enjoys the game too. It's just fun to see what everyone will choose to match the main card.

Following our "Apple" game, we had our ice cream treat and then the kids watched 30 minutes of "The Road Runner" while I did up the dishes and picked up my house. We left here at 3:00 because we had to take Brendan to his cross-country practice by 3:30 over at Manhattan Park. Thankfully, I only made a few wrong turns and after plugging my phone into the car, we were able to correct my wrong turns and got Brendan there in plenty of time.

Manhattan Park:  What a nice playground we found here at Manhattan Park! The surface of the playground was this very comfortable foam material, which made it feel safer than the usual playground. The younger kids had a great time playing for the next hour.

The three of them were inventing all kinds of stories among themselves ... pretending various situations were happening to them.

I'm so glad they got to play outside today since the temperature was mild and it was a beautiful day.

When we returned to their house, this little cutie grabbed my phone and took a very quick "selfie".

We had a very nice time together today ... but man ... I sure am tired!