October 26 An exhausting kind of blessing

Tuesday:  We were kind of "off" today ... perhaps it was just me--but things were NOT smooth. Maybe we just started off badly--I picked the little kids up from pre-school at 11:30. Usually, Erin and Aidan are at the same gate and are ushered over to my car by one of the teachers. Today, however, Erin was at one gate and Aidan was around the other side of the church at another gate with his class. I strapped Erin into her car seat, pulled the car ahead, and thought I would just physically run around to the other side of the church (because the parking lot was packed and I wasn't sure where I would park on the other side of the church) and grab Aidan. Brendan was in the car with Erin. When I walked around the church, Aidan's class was being dismissed by a teacher who had never met me and asked for my I.D. (which was in the car, which was of course on the other side of the church). Aidan had a totally blank look on his face ... like he had never seen me before in his entire life! I explained to this teacher that I had just picked up Erin and that my car was on the other side of the church, etc. I addressed Aidan--"I there sweetie!" No response. Zero. NOTHING from Aidan. She very reluctantly released Aidan to me, and he kept up his very distant "vibes" on our walk back to my car, which made me feel ... ODD. When I got him situated in his car seat and I asked him: "So ...what's up, dude?" And he began cracking up, like it was some kind of a joke. AHHHH. Okay, then. I tickled him without mercy afterwards.

We did all of our usual stuff today and it was a JOY to have them ... just a little bit more harried than usual. All three talking to me at once, wanting different activities simultaneously, etc. We did OK but I felt rather exhausted. Perhaps it was the thing with Aidan in the bathroom refusing to leave because he wanted to play in the sink ... water EVERYWHERE, etc. I ushered him out, but he was not pleased.

We designed a few game boards today. I had begun sketching out one early this morning and Brendan added to it for about an hour this afternoon. We had a water slide, a moon that you could slide off, a star that bounced you over to the moon, etc. Brendan, Erin and I played and Brendan WON.

Aidan spent a lot of his time building with LEGOs. He makes some kind of house every single week. He just enjoys putting the bricks together and picking out the colors. I'm so glad to see how much he enjoys this.

Aidan designed a game as well with VERY precise rules--except he was the only one who KNEW the rules! He and I played the game and he kept changing up the rules (this child is hilarious) but we made it through the game 2x!

Erin was super super sleepy today. She is only three and probably would benefit from an early afternoon nap--but she hasn't officially taken a nap since she was an early two. She was extra cuddly today and super sweet; however, she had much less patience with Aidan's antics and several times shouted quite loudly at him!

I popped some popcorn and settled the kids down to watch "Fievel Goes West" in the late afternoon. I cleaned up around the house a little bit and watched some of it with them. 

It took 45 minutes to drive back to Dylan and Kelly--a ridiculous amount of construction ongoing in this area! We enjoyed some yummy pizza AND I got to play with this little guy for awhile. Here he is trying my boots on. Callaghan is a sweetie-pie. He and I don't spend much time together ... so I always enjoy the opportunity to get to know him a little bit better. He reminds me a lot of his dad at this age ... laid back, easy-going, quick to smile ... love him.

 

October 23 An extra JOY

Saturday:  Thursday when I was either picking up or dropping Kaity off over at Diana's, I had the opportunity to say "hi" to Matthew for a little bit. I told him he was very welcome to come over any time. I was SO happy when I received a text from him Friday evening stating he would like to come on Saturday. It was Emma's idea that we carve pumpkins this weekend with Kaity ... so instead of just TWO pumpkins, we got to carve THREE! The happiest part of our day was to have Matthew join us.

I'm mostly going to just run these pictures of our carvings ... I helped Kaity with the actual CUTTING of the design, but she gutted it almost entirely by herself. It's quite a slimy job to gut a pumpkin!

Emma had very definite plans for her pumpkin and I think it turned out marvelously! She worked super hard on it and didn't really have anything happen that was disappointing.

Matthew decided to carve a 3-headed dog on his pumpkin ... I forget where this particular beast comes from--I do remember a 3-headed dog in Harry Potter, but Matthew said that this was NOT that one.

Emma connected her pumpkin's teeth using dental toothpicks. These are the best pumpkin teeth I have ever seen.

I tried to snap as many pictures as I could of Matthew. The last time he was over was WAY BACK in April when we celebrated his birthday. He is such a nice person and he has grown--not only in height (we measured him at 5'11" tonight), but in his kindness and patience. I was a pleasure to have him with us tonight in so many ways.

I absolutely love this pumpkin ...

Here are all three pumpkins lined up. Okay ... let me explain the one I helped Kaity with. It is supposed to be a CAT and we worked off a picture we had taken from the internet. However, I must admit that this did NOT turn out as cute as the picture at all. I couldn't get the ears right and Kaity finally decided to do away with the ears completely! KAITY seemed pleased with her pumpkin--so that's all that really mattered.

A close-up of Matt's handiwork--lots and lots of detailed cuts and scraping!

I dug through my cupboards and found THREE (whew!) appropriate candles for lighting the pumpkins ...

We also enjoyed dinner together and all of us played a game of PACHESI afterward! It went on FOREVER! Kaity actually stuck it out through the whole game--I was very proud of her. Matthew won! It was SO close. What I enjoyed most about playing the game was our laughter ... it did my heart good.

We also played Emma's riddle game! That was fun too! The riddles just about drove us crazy ... but all of us had a good time. 

I had prayed about this time together throughout Friday evening and Saturday morning--a little hesitant about how things would go, so since I was worried about it, I talked to the Lord about those worrisome things. He heard me (isn't that amazing?) and answered each of my worries with His amazing care and presence with us. I am so thankful I can trust in His UNFAILING help and mercy.

October 21 Welcome back, Kaity!

Thursday:  Three weeks have gone by since I have seen Kaity-Girl! She got double-quarantined because her brothers had COVID consecutively. When I picked her up from Jesse, she reached her arms out to me and said, "I missed you, Grandma!" I missed you TOO, Kaity!

We played FIVE games of UNO. Kaity beat me four times! I did manage to pick up ONE game. Kaity brought her baby, Angel, to visit with us tonight. She was dressed in her brand new blue shiny shoes with real tie-up laces. Kaity takes such good care of this little baby doll!

We also worked on a Star Wars puzzle. We played with a bunch of stuff in my desk drawer, blew up a balloon to see if we could get Belle to play with it--but there was a problem--we could NOT find little Belle anywhere! We looked under, over, inside of everything in this little house! 

It sure was nice to have Kaity come over again. I am very glad she never got COVID herself. I'll see her again Saturday afternoon--we plan to carve pumpkins with Emma!

October 19 Tuesday's Children

Tuesday:  How much FUN can we have at my house! Aidan was his usual playful and verbally outrageous self today ... his favorite word seemed to be "stinky" ... everything was "STINKY" and as he said the word he cracked up. He quite regularly cracks up about words ... I love this about him. Brendan is very much this way too ... always has been--although less outrageous than Aidan. 

We played lots of games today--a few from our "Doodles 101" art book (Mo Willems). Brendan spent a great deal of happy time designing his own game on the back of one from the book ... I'll show the finished game to you later ...

I'm not sure WHY Miss Erin looks so entirely glum in this photo ... she LOVES to play games. We were using one of my "mood" dice as we played today. If it landed on the sad face--that meant you were stuck right on that square and could NOT move. Erin repeatedly rolled the sad face ... so did Brendan--but that made Brendan just laugh! He is a very good-natured sort of person. 

Aidan worked on another "book" today and was entirely DISinterested in playing ANY games ...

I got down my LEGO lighthouse as well as the LEGO treehouse for Aidan and Erin to play with--as long as they kept it up on the table where it couldn't be stepped on. They did great with it. I'm not kidding you--they played with these models for over an hour.

Brendan observed his siblings, listened to their cute conversations and occasionally would look up and smile ...

Erin and Aidan had all kinds of pretend play going on here ... these are very nice models. The lighthouse even comes with an Ice Cream Shoppe and has a potty too!

The tree house has a very cool zip line ...

Here is Brendan showing me his game ... we played it and had so much fun! Brendan was very pleased.

Aidan was 100% happy making ice cream cones for all of the LEGO people ...

Three beautiful grandchildren ... I love them so much.

This little angel baby was a little bit sleepy throughout the day. She climbed up into my super soft round bedroom chair and cuddled up with my softest blanket ...

Here is a closer look at Brendan's game ... he did an excellent job on it!

We did watch a video from Amazon Prime ... the kiddos were all pretty tired and so we popped popcorn and relaxed in the front room for awhile. Look how tired little Erin is!

We returned to their house at about 5:45 to eat PIZZA! I played with little Callaghan for awhile--neglected to bring my camera--which I regretted! He is such a sweet little person. I stayed to help tuck Aidan and Erin in for the night (which is a bit of a process): they use the potty, brush their teeth, recite the Lord's Prayer--and Dylan asks them to name TWO things they are thankful for that day. Erin said she was thankful for her dad and for "gwamma". Aidan said he was thankful for "scary stories!" and then he couldn't think of anything else. Dylan then asked the kids to thank Jesus for those things they had named. I stayed and sang some songs with them--but they were pretty wound up, so I finally gave up getting them to settle down, kissed them both (Erin gave a big hug too) and then left. What sweeties they are. 

Thankful today right down to my toes ...