Category: grandchildren

How to Make Fairy Gardens!

Last week, I was privileged to have my two Oklahoman grandkids here for the week.  Several days of that week, I also had my other grandson here, who lives here in town.  One of the things we did was making Fairy Gardens.  They turned out to be a great success.  I will share with you the steps we took to make them.

     How to Make A Fairy Garden

You will need:

  • a shallow container of some kind to put your garden in.  (I used a large base for flower pots.)
  • a few small rocks to put in the bottom of the dish
  • Enough dirt to fill the container most of the way
  • Little fairies, mushrooms and tiny houses  (I ordered a kit plus other things from Amazon.)
  • A few small plants to add trees to the garden.  (I used moss)
  • Excited children

DIRECTIONS:

If you are doing this on a table, cover it with newspaper.  Put containers on top of table.  Add containers of fairies and houses, etc.

Add rocks to bottom of containers.

Add soil to almost the top of the container.  We added a little sand to the soil.

Plant small plants in soil.  We used the moss.   (Be careful!  After they sat on the table all night, we had ants coming out that had been in the moss plants.)

Place small houses, trees, mushrooms, people, bridges, boats, fairies in the container, wherever the child wants.   (The wings were not attached to the fairies, when we got them.  I suspect a little dab of super glue would have solved that.  However, I had non-particular children so we just laid them out there.)

Sprinkle the moss with water.

Enjoy!  My grandson has his on his front porch, and he plays with it, rearranging it, every day.

Have you made Fairy Gardens?  What did you put in them?   Let me know what you think in the comments .

Grandma Ruddell

 

Celebrating My Freedom!

 FREEDOM!  FREEDOM!  FREEDOM!

   It’s the  4th of  July.  Dick has put the flag out to celebrate.  We’re proud to live in the USA!  Though the country seems to be in some turmoil at the moment, we’re still celebrating lots of freedoms.  So here are some thoughts of what freedoms we take for granted at times.

  • We have the freedom to travel in our country, without being attacked or shot down.
  • We aren’t trying to get to another country, because our jobs are so bad or such poor living conditions.  On the whole, we’re a pretty humane country.
  • We have the freedom to vote.  The results may not be what we wanted, but we CAN vote.
  • As a female, I have the freedom to dress how I want and have the freedom to drive.
  • As a female, I don’t have to look down or bow down to a man.  I can be strong on my own.
  • We have the freedom to watch any show on TV, and read newspapers.  We can state our own opinion.
  • We have the freedom to not condone and to report the abuse of any other person.
  • And MOST OF ALL, right now……I am enjoying the freedom from vacuuming because of my new ROBOT VACUUM!!!   I love it!    

I don’t know if we will be able to get out and take the grandkids to see fireworks tonight.  We thought about going somewhere last night, but we’d had a big day, and it was way too hot.  We chose to stay in.  I think it’s going to be “hotter than the 4th of July” today.  We’re going to make Fairy Gardens today or tomorrow.

What freedoms are you enjoying today?  How are you celebrating the 4th of July? Let me know, in the comments.

Grandma Ruddell

Things I Love Right Now!

Things are going well!  Here are a few things I’m loving right now:

  • Just spent last week celebrating my grandson’s sixth birthday.  Wow!
  • Friday, my grandson and granddaughter are coming, from Oklahoma, to spend a week with us.
  • Our backyard is starting to look a lot better.
  • I’ve applied to start getting Social Security in September.
  • I had a mammogram yesterday, and glad that’s off my plate.
  • Looking forward to the Sister Cities’ International Leadership Academy which is next month.  We will be keeping two ladies…one from Italy, and one from Indonesia.
  • Though Bill, the dog, went to a kennel for last weekend, he came home happy and still loves us.
  • Hearing my youngest grandchild start to put words together to make simple sentences.
  • Spending several hours at Winstar Casino.  I contributed to the Indian Nation’s education fund.
  • Just read a good book.  I love to read!

Have a good week.

Grandma Ruddell

I’ve Been Travelling!

I’m sorry I haven’t posted anything for awhile.  I’ve been out of state, travelling for three weekends in a row.  To say I’m ready to be home for awhile is an understatement!   But they were fun weekends.

Three weekends ago, I went to Kansas City to attend my nephew and fiance’s bridal shower.  It was on the same day as the Royal Wedding, so that was the theme of the shower.  The hostesses had made fascinators for all of us to wear.  The shower took place in this fabulous, big ole house in KC.  We had a delightful lunch, watched the fiance open gifts, watched a video of the groom’s take on the whole courtship and future, and ate fancy cake.  So much fun!!!

On Memorial Weekend, I drove to Missouri to my aunt’s house, for our annual Morrow reunion.  My mother was a Morrow, and had three sisters and a brother.  I have multiple cousins and second cousins.  It’s always so much fun to see everyone and catch up.  One of my cousins has wanted, for several years, to have a Pie Day.  This year we did it!   Every meal was basically pies, pies, and more pies.  It was everything from Chicken Pot Pie, to Taco Pie, to Fruit Pies, and everything in-between.  What a fun idea!

This past weekend, we drove to Marland, Oklahoma for another nephew’s wedding….this time on my husband’s side of the family.  We’ve all had reservations, for years, on whether the groom would ever get married.  He finally found a wonderful gal, and I think they will be very happy.  Once again, it was fun to catch up with that side of the family.

We stayed in an AirB&B farmhouse, that was just a few miles from the wedding.  It was a Centennial Farm….it had been in the family over 100 years.  It reminded me of my old farmhouse that I grew up in, in Kansas.  After looking at the books in the house, I deducted that this was the home of a Methodist minister.  There was also a book on the coffee table, that told the tale of the man who had grown up there.  He was a past governor of Oklahoma.  Wow!  It turned out that yes, the daughter is a Methodist Deaconess, and she has been my daughter-in-law’s Spiritual Advisor for over 10 years.  My daughter-in-law is also a Methodist minister.  How weird is that??  It was a fun time at this house.

And now….I’m home for a few weekends.  Maybe I’ll finish getting things planted in my garden.  Maybe I’ll get a few posts written!  Maybe I’ll even relax.

What are you doing, now that school is out and the heat has gone berserk???  Any big plans for the summer?  Leave me a reply and press like if you enjoyed this post.

Grandma Sherry

A Day at the Science and History Museum

 

Last week, I took my grandson, Isaac, to the Fort Worth Museum of Science and History.  What a treat!!!   He didn’t want to leave.  That seems to be the reaction of most of the kids visiting the museum.  It is a museum that educates in a fun way, with everything from dinosaurs to the Omni Theater, where you can see movies in a surround type view.  There is also the Noble Planetarium, where you view the stars and learn about their stories.                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

 

Though we could have gone outside to dig for dinosaur bones,  it was a warm day so we stayed in the building.  We spent some time in the Energy exhibit.  In this exhibit, Isaac’s favorite part was a big city, that you could push buttons to light up different features.  BUT…his big thing was the little train that rain all around the city.  He loved the Choo Choo!  There was also an area that had a giant truck.  The wheels were bigger than him.

 

Throughout the museum, there was a nice gift shop, a cafe, and an area for older kids to explore and create things.  We stayed in the younger kids’ play area.  Oh my goodness!  It was wonderful.   It had a train area, to set up your own train on tracks, a grocery store to shop and buy things, and a really neat hospital area.  The hospital area had an ambulance, baby beds and babies, x-rays, and dress-up area.  This was very popular because the ambulance had a siren and you could drive it.

Though we came back to these areas several times, the really big draw on this hot day, was playing outside in the water/block building area.  Isaac loves to play with water.  He was in his glory!

 

                It was a glorious day…then..naptime!