The Weekend….Weird, Wonderful, and Woeful

This past weekend we went to Kansas City, to my nephew, Alex Treaster’s, wedding.  It turned out to be a weird, wonderful and woeful weekend.  I’m going to tell you what happened!

From Ft. Worth to KC is a long trip.  Dick and I were going, and my daughter and hubby, and 23 month old were also going.  My son and two kids were going to go from Guthrie, OK.   We were all trying to save money.  My sister had recently moved from her apartment to a new house, and we could stay at her apartment and sleep on air mattress.  Very basic, but fun to stay together.

My daughter drove, on Thursday night, to Moore, OK, and they stayed with my son-in-law’s parents.  No charge there!    I called and had a free night at Winstar.  Only when we got there, they told me it was $150 for the room.  Noooooooo…I don’t THINK so!   There was a lot of conferring with the manager, and finally they gave us our free room.  It turned out to be a good night….I left the casino floor with $700.  WOW!  I usually leave with barely anything, because I tend to put any winnings back in.

 

We all arrived in KC within 15 minutes of each other.  My sister had left the key under the dog, on the front porch.  We blew up the air mattresses.  Then we went out to lunch at Fritz’ Railroad Restaurant, in Crown Center.  It was pretty cool, with trains delivering our meal.  The kids loved it.

Then we went back to the apartment and changed clothes.  We went to the Rehearsal dinner.  It was fun.  It was good to see everybody.  Everyone was in a jubilant mood.  Only later did we find out that my brother, the pianist, had forgotten all of his music.  He was almost to KC, from 3 hours away, when he realized it.  He had to do some major buying , running off, and practicing before the wedding, the next day.

 

The next day, we did this and that, and then went to the wedding.  It was totally beautiful and fun.  It was so fun to see my youngest grandson dancing with a little girl.  (His Grandma and I have already planned that wedding. )  We left the reception about 11:00.  Everyone was pretty tired and wanted to go to bed.  My son and kids had already gone back to the apartment.  When we got back, the door was locked.  We banged and banged on the door, but couldn’t rouse anyone.  Tried to call, to no avail.  My daughter’s and us decided we’d need to get a hotel.  We both got one, online.  When we got to ours, they said “No, we’re booked up tonight.  That reservation is for tomorrow night.”  The kicker…there was no refund because it was online.

My daughter’s had reserved a hotel, online.When they got there, they said they had been ready to call them, because they were all booked up for the night.  No..it wasn’t refundable.  So they went to another hotel, and somehow talked to the reservation people and  got a refund on the first hotel.    The second hotel was another hundred dollars than the first.

We finally called my sister, and she had a spare key.  She brought it over, and Dick and I were able to get in.  My poor son was appalled, the next morning, that the door had somehow been locked and he had had his phone off for the night.   But it was OK.  My daughter’s came back, the next morning, and we all got packed and cleaned up the apartment.  My sister had a nice brunch for the families, and then we headed out to the farm, where my brother and wife live.  That was our landing place for the night.

We had left Bill, the dog, with one of Jessi’s friends…actually, her boss…who thought everything would be fine.  She had a dog, they had met, and she came home at noon, and after work to let the dogs out, and walk them.  She sent texts, saying they were having a good time.  The morning we were leaving my brother’s house, her text message changed.  She mentioned that things weren’t going too well the last few days.  There was pee and poop all over her house, and her couch was a mess.   I  practically hyperventilated all the way home.  When we got there, she was very gracious.  I offered to pay for cleaning her rugs, and buy a new couch.  She declined, but her rugs were rolled up, on the patio, waiting to be cleaned.  We apologized, felt really bad, and left quickly.

Look at that dog!  Doesn’t he look sweet and wonderful.  He’s back home, enjoying the peace and quiet of his home.  We are too…except for the 106 degrees.  This will be a wedding weekend to remember!!!!   And now, I realize I don’t have a picture of the bride and groom!   Glory.

 

 

Enjoying A Fun Week With Grandchildren!

Last week, we kept our two grandkids from Oklahoma, and on two days, our grandson from here.  They all played together nicely…for the most part.  The two youngest are almost two and almost three.  The oldest boy just turned six.  Basically, we could say that we have two that are in the terrible two stage.  They are getting better at sharing, but still struggle a bit with that.  The word NO seems to come up a lot.  But they’re all a joy.   Here are some of the things we did last week.

Liam loves to play with his legos, so that was his big activity.   Libby wasn’t sure about Bill, the dog, but she shared her snack with him.  Libby was big into Paw Patrol.    We watched a lot of that.  Isaac wanted to watch anything with buses or trains.  His favorite is “Blippi and the bus”.  Have any of you discovered Blippi yet?  He’s silly and does a ton of educational , fun videos for kids.

The kids played with play doh, made some pictures with Bingo daubers, and played in the sand pile.  After that, they needed popsicles.  I tried making my own for the first time.  They turned out pretty neat!

Boppa took the older two kids fishing.  They each caught a fish, and Boppa caught a big turtle.

One night, we went over to Isaac’s house and played with his toys.  That was pretty exciting.  They also danced as we were getting ready for dinner.  Alexa is just a wonderful thing for kids…they can choose their dance tunes.  This video is not really good quality, but it shows the spirit of the dance.  (I’m sorry…can’t figure out how to make the video photo smaller.)

We made Fairy Gardens for them to play with, and take home.  That was fun.  Grandma finally got a robot vacuum cleaner, and it was a great “toy” to watch.

At the end of the week, I asked Liam what was the best thing he did all week.  I listed all of the things for him that we did.  He thought about it for awhile, and said “I think it was the fire truck I made with the Legos.”   LOL  That boy is a Lego whiz!!

Boppa and Grandma had a good time too.  But…we were exhausted by the end of the week.  We’ve had a week of rest.  Now we’ll see them again this weekend.  Yes!

What do you do to entertain your grandkids?   If you liked this, press the “like” button.

Grandma Ruddell

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