Day Five - Friday

We had a fun day today!



Talk about tired kids at the end of the day! Tired Granny too.

Day Four - Thursday

Breakfast was a flop. The special kids' cereal that Griffin picked out - wasn't a hit. It's difficult to find foods for kids when they don't like much of anything that I'm familiar with. I don't remember their mom being a picky eater. She was a real meat and potatoes kid!

Hmm, I wonder who was playing with my camera this morning?

She took a good picture of Scrunchie. Not and easy shot to get considering the poor pup has been spending most her time in hiding. Hang in there Scrunch.



May, our Border Collie, was helping me video tape the kids playing in the pool this morning. See if you can spot her on the tape!:0)




No poops from Nona today...but not as much grunting going on either.

Mostly they snacked today, until dinner time. Rich got home and we went out for Chinese. There were angels in the restaurant and they were sitting at OUR TABLE! I was impressed!

They ate all their dinner, which was not a real surprise it was sweet and sour chicken and white rice and 7up to drink. What kid wouldn't scarf that down?

After we left the restaurant we stopped by Safeway to cash in the lottery scratch tickets from yesterday. They had to wait until we got home to scratch them. Fin got another $2, and Olive got one for herself this time. She won 20 bucks!


Ice cream for dessert! For three kids who were awesome at the restaurant and ate all their dinner! "Hi Mama."

Bedtime! See you in the morning!

It took about 2 seconds for them to fall fast asleep.

Day Three - Wednesday

After a hearty breakfast of cimmomen toes and chocolate milk, my niece came over to spend the day with us and help bring one of the horses home from a friends loaner pasture. But first we piled into the car and went into town.


We stopped at the tack store first to buy some toys and a belt for Fin.





We stopped at Eagans for lunch outside. Not much food was consumed, but we have fun, that's what counts.






Olive and Little Neenah got to spend some quality time together.




Then we came home and left again to go get Jake.

Jake was happy to get home and then there was more water fun!



Nona drives the Gator for the first time. It wasn't a real smooth take off and Spencer jumped 10 feet sideways when she lurched toward the fence.







The dogs just take it all in stride. That blur is their Scottie. I'll get a picture of him yet.

Nona had a REALLY BIG MOMENT today. She finally took a poop! I was so proud of her and told her next time she did that, we'd have a party!

Fin and I had to buy some lottery scratch tickets at the store and we each won 2 bucks. Gambling is educational. Right? It's working on numbers and matching things.

Getting everyone into bed was a little challenging tonight. But we are getting better at this every day.

Not really.

Day Two - Tuesday

Erin and J boarded their plane for Maui today. Here is a strand from her first email sent after making it safely to their condo on the beach. (Nice...) "Kiss to the kids – I miss them terribly!! I had a hard time fighting the pains of guilt every time I saw a family with children. But I’m sure a few mai tais will take care of that straight away! Hee hee!! "

We went out to breakfast this morning and the kids did great. Only one mishap when Fin dropped one of those little packets of Jam on the carpet. Open side down and when asked to retrieve it, he decided to step on it to see what would happen. Grandma lost it, is what happened.

When I left the table to get a wet paper towel so he could clean up his mess, the neighboring customers were crediting themselves with the fact that they would never leave 3 kids alone at a table that long. I was watching them from around a corner to see what other shenanigans they might get up to, while the waitress got the paper towel for me.

Then another large lady in a fancy uniform showed up and posted herself at the same table next door. The kids stared. She rose and came over to our table and offered all three a sticker badge. They are now Junior Firefighters. That's what happens when you're a kid and you fixate on a person in uniform. Junior Fixators is more like it. She was nice, but Nona was the only one who appreciated the upside down badge on her chest.

I forgot my camera for all that fun, but meanwhile, back at the ranch!

There was gator driving.

Arts and crafts.

Rest. (None of us got much sleep last night, and only one of us is making up for it today. )

Swimming. (Olive modeling a recent find. Because she didn't dig deep enough into her suitcase to find that her mom had packed several suits for the water, she found somethin' that would make do. Not sure which drawer she dug this out of, but yes, it's one of my swim suits from many pounds ago. )

Catching up on some more zzzzz's.
Boredom and chocolate milk.

Dinner Time!


Yeah, I know brocolli. That would be a big "NO" for Olive.

Bath time done and ready for bed! Scrunchy, the curly coated cattle dog (named by Olive) figured out that by the time I get these three out of the tub. I'm way too pooped to give her a bath. She says, "Yah, Baby!"

It's very late now and as I sit here typing, a Junior Fixator sits next to me, earning her badge. It appears that she got enough sleep today.
That expression hasn't changed in awhile. Scary.
Oh, did I mention the kids brought their 2 dogs. This one, Freida, is old and sleeps inside. Angus, is a black Scottie who moves too quick to get a picture, but I will.

One day and this is the laundry pile so far!

Yeeeah. Granny is the one who could use the Mai Tais about now. And it's only day two!

Seriously, we're having fun!

Grandma Pat

Day One - Monday

My daugher's family arrived here late yesterday afternoon which included three extremely excited grandkids! They are here to stay at Camp Grandma!

Fin (that's half his name) is ready to burst at the thought of all the stuff he'll be able to get into and investigate.
Nona, also part of her real name, and is short for a little problem she's been having lately, which in Spanish is no puedo caca. Even if you don't speak the language, that one is easy to figure out. Grandma will fix her up.
The one in the middle is Olive. Also, a shortened version of her first name. She's a ballerina! A cowgirl! An Actress, A Singer/songwriter, and much more. This one has an imagination...

Time for mom and dad to leave!




The idea of mom and dad leaving them with Grandma and Grandpa seemed like a fantastic one! Until it was actually happening. Although the Fin was really the only one who had a major melt down; I'm pretty sure that was more about making sure mom and the Dadster didn't leave completely guilt free.

Because shortly after the goodbye hugs and kisses had been blown at the back of the van...

We relaxed and...
Fun ensued.
Fin plays with my camera while Olive is helping with dinner. She told me that she's going to be the next Rachel Rae!

Then there was...



...water fun, while dinner simmered in the pot. And like this:

This looks like a good idea!
Shoes?
Hey, this is MY pool party!

Crashers!

Okay, we can all fit, I guess.



Hey, Olive gets an idea! How about

Pouring water over Nona's head!
There's one in very crowd.

Dry tears, dry clothes and dinner.

My garage sale finds that are going to make mom say, "Where'd those clothes come from?"
How about a toast? To 9 more days together!
"Grandma is not going to believe what her house is going to look like at the end of this vacation!"

I'm already getting a pretty good idea about that.