Summer Daze for Old Folks

 Thought I'd post a few pictures of the hum drum days of summer.

Early in June our guys from DFW Window Doors and More came and replaced

the windows in the room addition. Those windows were already double pained, 

but they were all fogged up and 22 years old. Now, when the missionaries move in with us

in September or October, they will be able to see out of the windows!

 My visiting teachers....Alisa and Mary....came over to see me one afternoon this month.

When they arrived, I noticed we were all wearing black.
I said, "Lets take a picture for my blog."

So here we are....the Women-in-Black!
(disclaimer...this is not the best picture of any of us)
 

 Melissa turned 23. I made her the strawberry cake that she likes....

 We sang to her, then we all had a piece of her birthday cake......

 After the cake was finished, she and Austin went to the pool for a refreshing dip.....

 We babysat Clairie-Bell, and of course, I gave her another sink bath....

We discovered that she was different since she went to see her G and G in Colorado. 

She learned some new things.
She learned to SPEED CRAWL. She learned to TALK REALLY LOUD.
And she cut 3 NEW TEETH. Colorado was good for her!

She also learned how to play the piano!
She's starting young....

Happy Texas Father's Day 2012

Our regular Sunday night dinner fell on Father's Day this year.  Here are our Texas father's and future fathers.  They were all in good form tonight and looking quite handsome. Liam is our HAMBONE!

 Emberly said our dinner prayer tonight. It was very sincere. She asked Heavenly Father to bless the fathers and the grandfathers and the brothers and the uncles and also mentioned that we loved them and wanted to serve them. We couldn't have asked for a sweeter blessing on the food or the fathers. I made me think of the verse in Isaiah where it says, "and a little child shall lead them." (Isaiah 11:6)

Our friend Johnny W. stopped by during dinner. Everyone was glad to see him. He sat with us and chatted a bit, then headed off to visit our neighbors. 

 Michael and Heather are leaving this next week to go visit Heather's family in the Northwest.  Steven and Amanda are getting ready to go on an exciting outing for Liam's 4th birthday, then Steven has a business trip to India! 

Mike and I were just happy to have everybody over for Father's Day. The Young Women in the ward passed out cute little baggies that held microwave popcorn and one little chocolate frosted "cake pop" on a sucker stick. Inside there was a card that said "You're the Greatest, Pop"  (or something to that effect).  I heard that they had different ideas of what to put on the card and one of them was, "To a Big Sucker"  

I'm sure that part was just a joke. 

Are you wondering why Austin is pictured here all by himself? That is because he planned a trip to Colorado for himself and Melissa and Claire without remembering that Father's Day would take place while the girls were still in Colorado after he returned to Texas.  Although I know he was a little lonely for his very own wife and daughter, I know they have things planned to celebrate his first official Father's Day when they get back home. :)

 The grand kids were very creative tonight. While the adults sat in the living room talking, they got busy with the paper and pens and created Camp HEAP.  It was some kind of fun summer camp, I guess. They were very busy doing "activities" all night long. They didn't even ask once to go out in the back yard to jump or tickle Grandpa.

 Here are the pictures of the posters that they taped to the walls. You can see that Camp H.E.A.P. stands for camp Hailey--Emberly--Ansley--Pierce.

 Ansley made the signs. This on is an "Advertising Sign," she said.

 This is the Camp banner. If you make the picture bigger you might be able to see that they each signed the banner to signify agreement to camp rules, or something. 

They put their heads together and came up with the list of  "activities" they would participate in at the camp. They were all pretend activities. They did six of the listed activities. The ones they did not get to do were, adventure trail, obstacle course, play sports, and free time. Ansley said that it was Hailey's idea to have a "free time" because they might get tired of having structured activities all the time!

 I did not see all of the activities, but Ansley told me about them. I did see the activities pictured below. She said the roast marshmallows/campfire songs were done with the lantern flashlight in the darkened playroom. She said they made a paper flame and put it over the light lantern and pretended that was a campfire. The floor in the extra bedroom was the swimming pool.  Below you will see they are doing the "fishing" activity by sitting on the bed. Ansley, on the floor was the "fish." Pierce asked, "Grandma, can you leave these signs up so they will be here when we come the next time?" I said, "I'll see..."

Fishing....

This is the "archery" activity.  Ansley made a big target and put it on the fridge with magnets.
Liam is trying to hit the bulls eye with his beanbag.
You can see the beanbag animal in mid air.....

All too soon Father's Day and Camp H.E.A.P. were over.....

They each took one small climb in the tree....

Ansley is getting braver. This is the highest she has climbed to date.

Practice makes perfect....

Good Bye little climbers! 
Have a fun time with your vacation and birthday plans this week.

Overnight at Grandma's -- Final Post

 The grand kids woke up bright and early the next morning.

Pierce was the first to rise at 5:30 a.m., followed by Ansley at 6 a.m.
Emberley sat bolt upright in bed around 6:40 a.m. and shook me awake.

I can accurately state that the grand kids did not get the early rising trait
from OUR side of the family!

They went out into the playroom and entertained themselves
until I got up at 7 a.m.and fixed them a nutritious breakfast of
either Trix or Coco Puffs or Pop Tarts.
  After breakfast I took them out in the back yard to jump
on the trampoline and blow bubbles while Grandpa picked up the bedding.

 We had the treasure hunt (wearing the masks) next.  

The treasure was treats to eat at the pool and a little prize
for each person.  Hailey got a set of Fancy Nancy Playing Cards.

 We played a game with them. Hailey turned out to be the winner!

 We planned to go to the pool first thing in the morning
and stay for several hours, then go home.

When we got to the pool at 10:30 a.m., we discovered that the normal opening time 

had been altered because of a swim meet. The pool would not open until 2 p.m.! 

We drove down to Farmers Branch to try their pool...but it didn't open until 1 p.m. 

There was a park right by the pool, so we stopped and let the kids play.

 They made up a game and seemed to have fun running around on the equipment.

I joined in the game and took some pictures.

 It was nice and shady. The whole play area was covered with a
big blue tarp. The equipment was new, I think.

 My "posers" posing with a brass statue mounted on a park bench.

 After playing at the park for about 45 minutes, we took them back home.

We put more modest clothing on so we could go to Braum's for lunch.

 Before going to Braum's, they had a silly string war. 

Silly string was in their bag of treasure.

 One small mishap. Hailey got squirted in the eye.
I think it was more near the eye than in the eye.
We had to stop to wash it out. That ended the silly string war.
I forgot my camera, so I didn't get a picture at Braum's.
Just imagine 4 really cute kids and their grandparents eating hamburgers
and chicken strips and finishing it off with super yummy
Braum's ice cream cones. After eating, somehow we wound up
making math problems on napkins and the kids had a ball working them out.
Having fun with math definitely did not come from my genetic pool, either!

 Last but not least....Rosemeade Rainforest!!!

 I took only these few pictures. 

Because I was having fun swimming, too! 
The parents picked the kids up from the pool about 5:30 p.m.
It was a fun 24 hours.
I love these grand kids.....they are GRAND!

Overnight at Grandma's -- Part 4

 After the Spray Park, we drove across the street to the other park.
We went to these same parks two years ago.
As the kids walked they said,
"That's where we played Mother-May-I (in 2010)," 
pointing to the exact spot where we had played our games.
I was happy they remembered.

 They didn't mention how hot they were (in 2010)
because we had walked to the park in the morning.....
instead of doing it in the evening by car like we did this year.

I guess they only remembered the fun part. 

 They played on this contraption at the 2010 overnight, too.
It is fun, but it was hard to balance the weight properly.
We had a little mishap...Hailey hurt her toe.
Luckily, it didn't bleed...so she recovered. 

 We decided the ideal weight combination was Ansley and Emberley.....

 against Hailey and Pierce.

 Next they all climbed up on the big "mountain."

 It isn't really all that big....but taken from this angle it looks huge!

There was even a little cave under the "mountain."

 We came home, took showers, and had some snacks before bedtime. 

Emberley was hungry, she had a piece of pizza.

 An important part of an Overnight at Grandma's is plenty of junk food!

 Sweetly enough, Pierce brought his scriptures. 

He is reading a chapter a night and writing in a scripture journal.

He read to us out loud and I got our big Book of Mormon that has pictures

and the girls followed along. It was a short chapter.

 I loved hearing the grand kids excitedly telling me
all the things they knew about Lehi's dream,
the iron rod, the great and spacious building, the mists of darkness, etc.
I was happy they are learning sacred things at home and at church.

 I bedded down on the floor with Emberly this year.

Pierce had his own mattress and the girls slept on the couches.

 Everybody said their beds were comfortable.

Grandpa told them a homemade story before they went to sleep.
They seemed to like it, although for the life of me I can't remember what it was about.
They were fast asleep by 10 p.m. 
In the morning I asked them if anyone heard me snoring...
They all laughed and said, "No!"

Lucky for me.