Another happy Friday night!

I hate to be one of those folk who wait all week long for Friday ... but if truth be told (!) that's exactly what I've caught myself doing lately. With school now in session, Friday afternoon, evening, and Saturday is the only time that works to see the grandchildren. I LOVE it when Friday finally comes!

I went to the library Thursday afternoon to see if I could find any books of interest to this trio of energy! I was so happy to find LEGO books that were designed around the Star Wars stories. I knew the boys would love these books. I found some horse books for Emma, as well as some Early Reader books for all of us to look at together (not pictured). 

Matthew immediately picked up the Origami book and got started on making a few animals! I have a very nice origami book somewhere in this house ... but I can't find it! 

Christopher just about went out of orbit with the Star Wars/LEGOs books! He especially loved the LEGO Star Wars Virtual Dictionary ~ and immediately got to sketching his favorite Star Wars characters. 

Emma, however, wanted to play a game with me. She is always wanting to play a game, and thankfully, I have a few around here that she enjoys. We especially enjoyed playing, "Dalmatian Pirates and the Volga Bulgars" ... which is just another fancy version of "Fox and Geese" in my opinion. But very fun, nonetheless! 

We played a few games: Emma won the first game, and I won the second. It's almost impossible to win if you are the pirates, unless you play very underhanded and force jumps, etc. But I decided not to get too fancy with the game until Emma could get the hang of it. 

Chris proudly showing me one of his
Star Wars guys ...

 We also watched another chapter of my video of "Anne of Green Gables." In the picture above, Emma is doing an imitation of Anne's skeptical smile ... the one she flashes in uncertain situations. Emma and Chris are really enjoying the Anne videos. Matthew comes in and out of the room as we watch, but it's not really his "thing" at the present.

Christopher and I played a game or two of the pirate game as well. He is a very astute game player!

We settled down for the night and attempted to watch "An American Tale", but the DVD (that I had just purchased for $4.99 at Best Buy!) gave us an error message after an hour into the movie ... and refused to continue to play! We made the best of the situation, though, and after a lot of pampering and fussing and talking finally made it into slumberland listening to the soft music of "A Secret Garden."

Sleepovers are wonderful things ... except Grandma doesn't get much sleep!

Ceiling FANscination ...

Since Brendan's cousins have moved back to Michigan, I've seen a little bit less of him than I usually do ... and this is regrettable because ... I love him intensely. But thankfully, he came over a few night's ago and played at The Beach House very happily. Brendan is still fascinated with ceiling fans. In the picture above, he is standing on my bed staring at the fan ...  

... and he wants to reach that pull string SO BADLY and pull it on and off, on and off ... but it is just out of his grasp! Brendan is at that very busy stage of his life where he doesn't like to stop for anything; so changing his diaper is quite a challenge. However, if you position his little body underneath a ceiling fan, it helps to calm him down and the changing of said diaper goes much more smoothly!

Brendan climbed up into my soft cushy reading chair afterwards, where he could relax and watch the ceiling fan go 'round and 'round ... 

I saw Dylan and Kelly and Brendan last night but didn't take any pictures whatsoever. Our little fellow had SPRAINED HIS ANKLE earlier in the day and wasn't putting weight on that little leg. He wasn't complaining or anything, but he definitely wasn't climbing, hopping, skipping and jumping as usual. It was too sad to photograph ...

Last weekend ...

Last weekend came and went SO FAST ... I am only now getting an opportunity to post some pictures before it all starts over again! This is the kiddos standing near their beautiful, enormous, new school (well, it's new for them at least!). They seem SO happy to be at this wonderful school. It is quite a contrast to their school in El Paso! We walked around the entire building. It is quite large and houses grades three, four and five ... so Matthew, Christopher, and Emma all get to be in the same building this year. 

We came back to The Beach House and put together some nice puzzles. Christopher worked on his and was fastest at finding matches pieces. His puzzle was a race car. 

But not to be outdone in any way, shape, or form ... Matthew persisted with his horse puzzle and completed it before anyone, without one single bit of help! Look at his PROUD face! He cracks me up. 

Emma loves pigs ... so I thought she would be kind of excited to put this puzzle together. But she was far more interested in playing the piano, so that's what she did for the first little while. I started on this piggie puzzle without her, but ran into trouble ... because I couldn't find hardly any pieces that would go together ~ and I'm the kind of puzzle person who MUST put the border together first before moving on to the center. So, finally, Emma heard me whining about needing help and supplied it rather well! She also prayed for our meal. We had such a nice time together around the table at dinner. 

By the time dinner was over and cleaned up, it was almost time for stories and bed. We read a few good books together, and read the story of the birth of Isaac. We got all snuggled up for the night and watched "Home Alone 2" because ... it is SO funny. We laughed and laughed and laughed ... and laughter is mighty good medicine sometimes!

 We played a bunch of Memory games after breakfast Saturday morning, and just hung around the house. After lunch, the kiddos begged to go back to Rockford to check out the Rogue River and the wildlife there ... so that's exactly what we did!

We watched the geese for quite awhile ...
they are very territorial! 

I love these happy faces!

Throwing stones into the Rogue River,
by the Rockford Dam

This friendly squirrel met our acquaintance and we had a lot of fun watching him scurry around, over and under, up and down trees. The children all love animals so much. I had to caution them not to pet this little critter! They are not one bit afraid! We had a beautiful time out in Rockford. So thankful to enjoy these wonderful days with them.

Baby Buddies ...

Last week I stopped by over at Dylan and Kelly's place, just to see their sweet faces. Since it was during work hours, Dylan wasn't home; but instead, I was treated to TWO babies, enjoying friendship ... at such a young age!

  

This is Brendan's friend, ABEL!
He is older than Brendan by 4 months, but
a littler tinier in size!

 Brendan and Abel have been friends for their WHOLE lives! Doesn't that crack you up?! They seem to enjoy each other quite a lot.

NO drinking and driving, Baby BRENDAN!

The object most played with was a very nice, sturdy cardboard box in the downstairs playroom, with a special circle window! But Brendan's little coup got a fair amount of play as well.

A tin canister and some piping made for a real nifty drum ... 

Which only goes to show you, fancy toys are not all they are cracked up to be! I loved being part of these two beautiful babies' afternoon!   PS: I did visit with Kelly too ... honest!

WHERE does he come from?

Saturday afternoon, after I dropped off Emma, Chris and Matthew I drove on over to pay a quick visit to baby Brendan and his folks. I was a little bit worried that Brendan might NOT recognize me since he hasn't seen very much of me since my Texas grandchildren have returned to Michigan. But, thankfully, I need not have worried. LOOK at that adorable and precocious little smile on this precious baby! I cannot get enough of him.

I remember asking Dylan and Kelly at one point Saturday afternoon: "WHERE does he come from?" Because Brendan is ... a completely HAPPY little person. His heart is SO FULL of joy. I love every single inch of him.  

Dylan and Brendan, sharing a drink ...

Dylan and Kelly went out to enjoy dinner for two and I got to stay and be completely entertained (!) by this person who is ...

hysterically funny, engaging, focused, determined, cuddly, intuitive, independent and completely delightful. It certainly was a great weekend to be a grandma! Thank you, Lord.

Our second sleepover ...

School resumed last week, and for my grandchildren it meant their very first day in a school district and building, with teachers and classmates that were completely unfamiliar to them. I prayed so much for them last week ... and so did many of my friends. I had last seen the children on Labor Day, and was excited to hear their impressions about school when I saw them Friday. I got a very enthusiastic report from all THREE children about their first three days at Pine Island Elementary.

Since they are living quite a distance from their school and are being transported back and forth every day by their folks, spending time with them on a school night is a tiny bit complicated with homework, etc. Friday finally came, and I received permission to have an overnight with the grandchildren.

My camera obviously was on the wrong setting when I snapped this picture above, but it does serve to illustrate our sleepover. We had made our own pizzas for dinner, had a wonderful Bible story time about Noah and his family, played games and listened to great music ... and then it really was time to settle down for the night. And yes ... the kiddos ARE eating kettle corn and watching a video on my rather smallish laptop screen, three sleeping bags in a row in the main room of my Beach House. We moved my little stovetop heater around from its usual corner and turned on the "fake" fire for a cozy little bit of ambience.  

I have had these soft, tiny magnetic animals
since Emma was a baby! All 3 children STILL love to play with
them and I find them posed in the funniest places!
Here they all are on the music holder of my piano.

I fixed Emma's hair like a princess, and here is
PRINCESS EMMA
dancing (naturally) to Fur Elise (once again)

Saturday morning always comes WAY TOO EARLY ... but thankfully, all of us slept in until 7:30. We had a bunch of interesting stuff to do around the house and had such a nice time together. While I was washing and styling Emma's hair, the boys played in the toy room and got an entire LEGOS space war started ... (!)

We were intending to drive over to Townsend Park and go exploring in the creek later in the morning, but rain prevented us from doing that. Instead, we continued our inside play until after lunch, when the rain had finally stopped, and then we drove up to Rockford to see the dam and take a short walk to see what we could see! The children loved it here! 

Matthew wasn't feeling very good, complaining of a headache, so we were careful not to spend too long of a time hiking. The children liked it here by the Rogue River very much. We definitely plan to come back in the future when we can spend more time exploring.  

We saw TWO turtles swimming near the rocks.
The children were happy to meet their acquaintance!