Category: grandchildren

GRANDMA CAMP

Oh my goodness! My hubby and I kept our three grandkids for a week of Grandma Camp. It really should have been Grandma and Boppa Camp….I couldn’t have done it without him. We had a lot of fun, and did a lot of activities. Last year, my youngest grandson, Isaac, who goes to a different camp every week of the summer, told his mom that I wasn’t very organized. I didn’t have a certain time for each activity. By golly, this year I was organized! Isaac will be seven in August, and lives locally. Libby will be eight in September, and she and her brother, Liam…who had just turned 11….live in Waco.

Boppa fixed breakfast for them. They ate a ton of pancakes and had a morning or so with donuts. I kind of like to sleep in. I let them play on their electronics until about 9:00 am. Libby and Isaac like art, creative games and come up with all kinds of things. Liam is a computer genius and prefers to be on the computer 24/7. My goal was to come up with activities to get them away from electronics. Our first activity, on Monday, was to make a Time Capsule. They each drew a picture and wrote about their activities that they enjoyed. We included a section of the newspaper, and a list of statistics. Liam decorated the box. We then found a hiding place for it, to be opened next year at the same time.

We also went to Isaac’s HOA park, and tie-dyed shirts. That was fun. When we got back, Libby and Isaac made a restaurant and we all had to come get a meal….even the house cleaner!

On Tuesday, it was the 4th of July. We went to the Movies. Then we came home and made a three layer cake….red, white and blue…with Isaac and Libby helping make it. Later, Liam frosted it. I may have baked it too long. It was kind of weird looking, and dry, but we added lots of whipped cream. Funnily enough, this was one of the kids’ favorite activities. Isaac’s parents came over for dinner, and they brought snakes and sparklers. (I’m sorry….this photo went wonky on me.)

On Wednesday, we had Game Day. We played darts, Uno, Crazy eights, Sorry and Jenga. We then went to McDonald’s and the robot served us lunch. Liam and I came home, and Boppa took the two younger ones swimming. Isaac got to stay for a sleepover. Yeah!

Thursday, Isaac and Libby did paint by number paintings. While I gave piano lessons in the afternoon, Libby and Isaac went with Boppa to the Trampoline Park. Liam worked on a game, her was making on the computer.

Friday, we went to the Modern Art Museum of Ft. Worth. What a great place! I bought two postcards for each of them, and we had to find that art piece and have a photo taken. They drew a picture of their favorite art, when they came home. Then we went to Andy’s Frozen Custard for a special treat.

Have you had Grandma Camp at your house? What all did you do? Were you exhausted when it was done? We were! Ha. But, ah, love those grandkids.

Hugs,

Grandma Ruddell

Ten Things I Love About February

Here are Ten Things I love about February. Enjoy!

February is such a fun month for kids and adults, alike. Here are 10 things I love about February.

  1. The weather changes a lot. We almost always get snow or ice around Valentine’s Day. Snow is unique in Texas. With 1/2 inch of snow, you will see school’s out, and lots of snowmen.
  2. I love Valentine’s Day!! It’s a day of love and showing someone else how much you like/love them. I like to put up my decorations and have fun with it.
    • Valentine’s Day is also my Anniversary. I married my sweetie 47 years ago. Sometimes though, he thinks I only need one gift, to serve both occasions.
    • Helping my Grandkids make and decorate Valentine’s cookies. Love those kids!
    • Giving lessons to my piano students. I had three new students this month…all brothers. They are so fun!
    • Planting pansies and preparing to plant other plants.
    • Planning my garden for Spring.
    • Going to Bunko, Ladies’ Poker and Mexican Bingo
    • Having a Super Bowl Party
    • Singing in my church choir, being a liturgist and teaching children’s church…things that make me happy.
        Anniversary bouquet
        Isaac frosting sugar cookies

        What are your favorite things about February? Leave me a comment . That section is either on the side with the #words, or at the bottom , under the Other things you might like. If you liked this post, press Like. That helps me!

        Love,

        Grandma Ruddell

        Grandkids Are Fun and Silly!

        No matter their age, my grandkids have their silly sides. Gotta love ’em!

        My Silly Grandkids!

        The last few months, we’ve had some good times with our grandkids. They are growing up, and they are all in school, so we don’t see them as much as we used to. Add to that, someone in each of their families has had bad cases of Covid. So our time has been restricted. They are all at that age where they would prefer to be on their electronics. It’s just a great thing when we get them interested in something else.

        Isaac and Nana the Spy
        Winter concert

        Libby and Liam live in Hutto, TX. That’s about three hours away for us. They stayed with us, awhile back. We decided it would be fun to go to the Fossil Rim Animal Park, in Glenrose, TX. The animals come right up to your car, wanting some food. At one point, Liam stood up through the roof of the car, and a Giraffe came right up to him. I looked up through the roof, and it looked right back at me, licking my hand. It was a fun time and the kids really had lots of giggles and stories to tell their parents.

        Buddies….through the top of the car!

        A new friend

        Another day, we took a hike at the Airfield Falls Trailhead and Conservation Park. There was a great waterfall feature. The kids climbed on the big rocks and had a good hike.

        Sitting on the big rocks at the park.

        Two cutie pies sitting on big rocks.

        Liam came to stay for a couple of days, with his mom. It was great to spend time with him, without others around. He did get to spend time with his cousin, Isaac. Isaac usually plays with Liam’s sister, Libby, while Liam is on his electronics. It was nice to see them bonding. They played electronic games too.

        After Isaac left, Liam decided to fix my hair. This is the first time he’s ever done this. He kept taking my brush into the bathroom, and getting it wet, dripping water all over the bathroom, and rushing back to try to fix a big spike in my hair. It was just LOVELY! LOL Oh…it was lovely the next morning too!

        My hairdresser, creating a Spike for me.

        The next morning…try not to judge!

        WARNING!!! DO NOT GO ANY FURTHER, IF YOU ARE HORRIFIED OR OFFENDED BY A PICTURE OF MY UNDERWEAR!!!

        Liam is 9, and has a very advanced computer brain. He is amazing. BUT…he’s also a typical 9 year old boy. Sometime while he was here, he was playing around in my closet, and I thought he hid a pair of my underwear. It seemed to me, after he left, that half of my undies were missing! I called them and he said that he had hid one under the couch, and some in the closet. After a week or two, I have finally, I HOPE, found about 8 pair of my undies thrown around my closet. Good grief!

        The Case of the Underwear Thief!

        Isaac is 5, and lives in Benbrook, about 15 minutes from us. What a difference a year makes! Last year, at this time, he stayed with us for 3 days a week. I had “Nana School” and tried to get him ready for kindergarten. This year, he’s in kindergarten, and we don’t get to see him much. As usual, being in kindergarten has introduced him to many germs. He’s had Covid twice, in the last 6 months, plus other colds and viruses.

        Isaac is super into Harry Potter. They read the book, and then watched the movie. He went as Harry Potter for Halloween. Just a couple of weeks ago, he found something on Amazon that he wanted to buy. He bought the cutest Harry Potter robe, and he has the glasses. We made Valentine cookies one night, while he was here. They were cute, and very popular.

        Harry Potter Robe

        Harry Potter does his homework.

        Frosting Valentine Cookies.

        Isaac and I made Valentine Cookies.

        I adore my sweet Grandkids. Do you have Grandkids? What fun things do you do with yours? I just went through the playroom, and decluttered a bunch of toys for younger kids. Kind of made my heart sad. Sigh.

        Have a great Spring!

        Grandma Sherry

        Feeling Better About Life

        • Spring

        It’s SPRING!!! Halleluiah. I always feel happier when nature starts greening things up, and flowers start popping out. I’ve been doing some planting. After the coffin flower bed had the bottom collapse, last year, it has been redone. I’ve planted herbs and a few other things in it. I’m liking the looks of it. I’ve also planted flowers in several pots. Dick cleaned out a big, overgrown, dying vine from the patio. We’re trying out ideas for that corner. I always get excited in the Spring, and plant things. Then it gets incredibly hot, in the summer, and I fizzle out. I think we may have lost a couple of things during the Snowmageddon. We’ve already dug up my rosemary bush. Not sure if the Banana Plant survived. We’re playing a waiting game.

        My new herb garden, in my coffin planter.

        Yes, I still need to weed some, but I like this pot of flowers. Can’t wait until they fill out.

        Great news is that we’ve had both of our covid vaccines. That’s a relief and makes me feel safer. We actually went over to our friends’ house, the other night, for dessert and visiting. I hadn’t seen them in so long! That was after we joined them at a restaurant, sitting on the patio. Yes, we’re still using our masks, doing social distancing, and being very selective about where we’re going. Ummm…yes…we did go to Winstar. I won a lot of money but gave it back to the local schools and economy.

        We have our vaccines! But we’re still being safe and responsible.

        It’s about time to get our Poker groups back up and going. We are all seniors, and have all had our two vaccines. In April, we’ll start back. Maybe Bunco will be next.

        Our son, Chris, recently had surgery for Colon Cancer. He’s only 41. Luckily, they got it all, and it hadn’t spread to the Lymph Nodes. He’s still dealing with a stent in his kidneys and some kidney stones, but he seems to be getting better. We thank all of our family and friends for their prayers.

        I had the privilege of taking care of my two grandkids, during the surgery time. I stayed with them for two weeks, had a weekend off, and then picked them up and brought them to our house for Spring Break. They had a chance to play with their other cousin, while at our house. We had Nana School, went to a park, and they are masters of Minecraft. It’s actually hard to get them off of electronics. Electronics were my leverage for getting them to brush teeth and go to bed. I felt fortunate to beat my 8 yr. old grandson at Chess. And he’s a beginner.

        Big news! We are about to come to the finish line with our bedroom. Yeah! We still need to buy a new bed. We’ve gone from a gold wall to a grey wall. So much calmer and serene. But….you’ll have to wait. Hope to have the big reveal in my next post.

        Leave me a comment and let me know how you are enjoying your Spring time. Are you planting things? Have you had both of your vaccines? Are you going out more?

        Happy Easter,

        Grandma Sherry

        What Could They Possibly Get Into???

        This past week, we’ve had our 5 yr. old granddaughter, Libby, staying with us. She lives in Buda, TX, just south of Austin. She really wanted to come and visit, and play with her 4 yr. old cousin, Isaac. We keep Isaac two days a week. When these two kids get together, they play and play and play. Dick and I love having them here. They are old enough now, that we don’t have to watch them all the time. Isaac had a sleepover, one night last week. They know this house well, and have some basic rules that they need to follow. I’m mainly happy when they are not watching TV all the time, or on their I-Pads.

        Libby and her tea set.

        Libby brought her tea set along. She and Isaac frequently played with it. I was pretty tired of tea! LOL I also have a container of play dishes and food. If one were to look under the dining room table, one could usually find dishes and food. Actually, you could find this stuff all over the house!!! The last day she was here, they were back in the Master Bathroom, washing dishes. I was informed of this, when Isaac came in to get dry socks. Yep, some water had overflowed on the floor, he had stepped in it, and there were wet footprints all the way from one bedroom, down the hall, across the family room, and into the play room. I gave him a big towel and he cleaned up all of the footprints, after he changed socks. They spent a long time, enjoying washing and drying the dishes. Hope they enjoy that activity as much when they are older!! Later, I found two empty soap containers and three wet towels. But the dishes looked good.

        The dishwashers.

        We made brownies together. Another day, they played with playdoh, while I fixed a roast for supper, and made three pans of lasagne for the freezer.

        Notice the brown dinosaur bone!

        And then, one day, I let them play in the play room. It got rather quiet. I went in to see what they were doing. They were cutting blue strips of paper, and putting them on the bedroom door, like a cross…..using the glue stick!!! Oh no. I got those off. I just noticed that there are three note cards stuck to the door.

        Yes..that’s put on with a glue stick. AAAGGHHH!

        I have a big box…a present for Dick…that I didn’t want to wrap. So the kids painted some designs that I made for them. Libby taped hers on today, before she headed home. They LOVE to paint!

        Boppa’s gift.

        Paintings to put on Boppa’s box.
        A gift for Boppa.

        What else could they get into? Oh yes…a couple of things. They hid things. I still haven’t found a remote for our bedroom light. (No, no…it isn’t one of those sexy lights! It’s just the lamp on the bedside table. And no, it’s not the old lamp we used to have, that made a huge shadow on the ceiling, that looked like a large male appendage. ) There seems to be things under every bed and table. Isaac kept unplugging some things. I vetoed that.

        Feathers in the fan…this is just a few of them.

        I have a couple of boas, hanging on my walls. I know, it’s strange. Goes with my Hat Collection. Anyway, they shed quite easily, if you get against them. When I went to pull down the covers, one night, there were tons of red feathers under the three pillows. GRR. Then I started to turn on the fan. It was full of red and black feathers. The photo is just a small part of what there was. GRRR.

        Next week, these two, plus the 8 yr. old brother of Libby, will be here for a day or so. Wondering what they will get into next!!!! I love them all so much.

        Happy Holidays. Snuggle up with your partner or your dog. Have a good week. Let’s have a fabulous 2021.

        Bill, our dog, in the Reindeer room.

        Let me know what you are up to. Do you have fun adventures with your kids or grandkids??

        Grandma Sherry