Grandkids Week Aug 2009--Monday Memories

I'm a day late, but you will understand when I tell you that I just spent one week with five of my grandchildren. I was a little busy and a little tired and had quite a bit of catching up to do.

Grandkids week
1
Number of mud fights

Number of splash parks visited

Number of times Tarzan got a personal cool down

Number of Candy Stores Visited

Number of cups of glitter vacuumed up
Number of successful all nighters pulled
Number of 3-D movies in the theater we watched

2
Number of water fights
Number of boys who got to spend 1 hour in the Apple Mac Store

4
Number of girls who got makeup

Number of boxes of cereal eaten

5
Number of Harry Potter movies watched
Number of meals Tarzan cooked outside for us

6
Number of huge trash bags filled

12
Number of tomatoes eaten

80+
number of paper plates used

84
Number of hours spent playing video games

100+
number of Plastic Cups used

168
Number of hours TV was on Disney Channel

174208
Highest score in Snood

???
How many times someone said “Shut the door.”

Updating My Knowledge of What is Going on in the Teenage World

I am not a text messager, however, I just learned these great codes from my granddaughter, Maddison. So, be listening for them in conversation with me.

tma: Typical Mormon Answer- going to church, reading your scriptures, saying your prayers,ect.
pmb: Perfect Mormon Boy- a common phrase used at girls camp.
ilgp: I love girls camp- I love girls camp
ctr: choose the right- I'm sure you knew that one.
sfmc: Shopping For Modest Clothing- long sleeves, pants that go down to your knees ect.

Harris Morley's Baptism

This weekend our grandson, Harris Morley, got baptized. Tarzan and I got to attend in Texas. We love Harris. He has an insatiable curiosity for life. He is smiling all the time. Harris has a tender heart and when you visit him, he is always sad when you leave. After the baptism, we all sat around and talked about memories. It was fun and the meal Tori and Bob cooked was awesome. Two of Harris’ friends were being baptized on the same day. I didn’t think to get a picture of all of them together. I have to get better at this picture taking thing. Here are the fun pictures I got. Remember, I never wait for posing.

Tarzan, Grandi and Harris, the official picture. New Suit, new shirt, new tie, new shoes, Wow.

Tarzan is loosening up for the teasing to start (with Maddison and Amber).

My sister is on the left, Tarzan is talking to Maddison. The other man is their home teacher.


Now, there is a series of pictures of Harris, being Harris. See the twinkle in his eyes?

After the baptism, Maddison, Papa, Tori (my daughter in pink)

There’s my Amber in the pink blouse. Isn’t she a cutie?



Here is my Maddison. She is so grown up. She has totally turned into a beautiful young woman.

Harris got the best present from his Home Teacher. He got a bag with a scout night light. It was green and could be clipped on to anything in a tent so you could see in the tent at night and it had an emergency handbook with it. He also got a prayer pillow that said “Brush your teeth, say your prayers and read your scriptures.” What a great guy.
My Harris

My Sister, Inez in the yellow blouse, and her friend, Daniella, Harris, and Bob (Harris’s Dad), Papa and the Home Teacher are in the background.
I love this picture of Harris standing among the brethern. He is part of the "club" now. In four short years he will hold the Priesthood. This is Harris, Papa (on the left) and the fabulous Home Teacher behind Harris.

How children view what is fun...

Wow! Did I miss the boat on this one. At the end of the week in Texas, I had 3 days to play with my grandchildren in California. I was tired after my big week in Texas so I decided to take the children out for every meal. The last night we had together, I said, in my best, fun, grandma voice, "Hey, I have a great idea. Let's have a progressive dinner."

"What's that?"

"Well, you have each course of the meal at a different restaurant. You start at one restaurant and have appetizers and then you go to another restaurant and have soup or salad..."

"We don't like Souper Salad."

"No, not the restaurant Souper Salad, you get your choice if you want soup or salad."

"I don't like soup or salad."

"Okay, you don't have to have anything at that restaurant."

"I will put 4 pieces of paper in a hat and we will each draw out one of the courses for the meal. Then you get to pick what restaurant we will go to for your part of the meal."

"I get P.F. Chang."

"Wait until you find out what course you get."

"I get to pick the dessert place."

"No, we are going to, oh never mind. I'll show you."

I wrote Appetizer, Soup/Salad, Entre, Dessert on 4 separate pieces of paper and we each drew one out.

"Oh, I got entre, can we trade?"

"No, let's just go and see what happens."

We agreed on a mall where there were lots of eating establishments and started with Sasha who had picked Appetizers.

"I pick Starbucks. Does a Vanilla Steamer count as an appetizer?"

"If that's what you want, that's what we'll do."

4 Vanilla Steamers, no 3 Vanilla Steamers and one Carmel Apple hot something or other.

"Ooow, I don't like it." "Okay, I'll have the Carmel Apple hot something or other. You can have my Vanilla Steamer."

California Pizza Kitchen was picked for the Soup or Salad. No one liked their soups, no one liked their salads. There were no whiners and no one making a fuss, just looks of confusion about what to do since they were supposed to have soup or salad and that wasn't working out. I said, "How about a bowl of rice, you all like rice." Everyone agreed, but remember we were at California Pizza Kitchen-----no rice. $21 worth of buttered pasta later, we decided to go to the movie and have hot dogs and candy for the entre and dessert.

Movie had already started. I was in no mood to stand in the wind for 2 hours to wait for the next one. So, without complaint we all agreed to go to Cold Stone Creamery and have whatever they wanted--no restrictions.

I didn't bother to look at that bill, but I had a chcolate covered cone with nuts on it filled with chcolate ice cream with Ghirardelli dark chocolate carmel filled pieces broken up in it and small chocolate chips. No interest in bubble gum, cottom candy or sour green apple for me.

Next time, I'll let them come up with the bright ideas. Never let it be said that any of my grandchildren are not independent thinkers or afraid to say what they want. I forsee a generation of indepdendent, individuals, leading the pack and confident in who they are and what they want.

Now, be sure you understand, this was a fun, pleasant, learning experience for me. I wouldn't trade it for the world.

What I did Monday

Feed children
Pack lunches
Drive to 2 different schools to deliver children
Grocery Shopping
Buy present for birthday party Friday
Vacuum
Answer e-mail
Grade Papers
Fix lunch
Grade Papers
Get Amber and Harris off the bus

At this point, we were all sitting in the kitchen having after school snacks when I heard a far away whine. It was so distinct that I asked Tori what it was. She jumped up out of her chair and her eyes got really wide and she said, "I bet it is the tornado warning." I thought she was joking, it was just barely sprinkling outside, hardly what I would think was a serious storm of any kind. We turned on the Weather channel and sure enough, we were right in the middle of a tornado warning. They said our town had about 20 minutes before we were in danger, so we jumped in the car and ran to school to pick up Maddison. Within about 2 minutes the rain was so heavy I couldn't see the road. I drove carefully to the school and we got Maddison. As we started home, we got some hail and then suddenly, and while the rain was still pouring down on us, the sun came up on one side of the valley and shown like crazy. So one side of the car was drenched in sunlight while the other side of the car was in the rain clouds.

When we got home there was still hail on the lawn, the wind was blowing and the rain was subsiding while the sun continued to shine down like crazy. We all went in the house to watch the weather channel and just like that it was over. Whew! I haven't been in a tornado ever. Hurricanes, yes, but tornados never.

The thing that made this so scary was the children. I think any man in this situation would have said, the children are safe at school. Let's wait until the storm passes and then go pick them up. Our maternal instinct was to get them with us so we could be in charge of their safety. Maybe not the smartest move, but we had checked to be sure we had a window of opportunity for safety before busting forth.

The rest of my activities for the evening pale in comparison to that one hour in our day.

So, how was your Monday?

What I did Saturday

These pictures are for the family. Amber Morley (She is No. 1) is a chip off the old block. Look at those serves, look at the intensity with which she place. Awesome. Just like Mom.

The Americna Girl Store is a racket and I am a sucker

Grandkids weekend

The Heywood kids came to visit and boy did we have fun. Please ignore the date on the pictures, I keep forgetting to take it off the camera setting.

After Mom and Dad dropped off the grandkids for the night, we just let the kids play outside. We have 2 acres so they have room to just play unsupervised--a rare treat in today's world.

Then we all loaded up in the car with our trap and went to the homeless shelter to catch pigeons. What a hoot. Tarzan says when you go to the homeless shelter and the pigeons see you carrying a bag they practically mug you to get at the food. The children put bread crumbs out on the street and we put the trap on top of the crumbs. Then we stood back and tried to hold still as the pigeons came over to eat the crumbs, emphasis on the tried. Finally, we caught a total of 5 pigeons. When we got home, Tarzan took the children out to hide the birds in the little cages he made to train the dogs to find and point the birds. After hiding the birds in the field by our house, they had a lesson on the training dog collar and what the dogs were supposed to do and off they went to train the dogs. To their great joy, Suzi sniffed out the birds and gave them a good point. Dottie is a snob, she only points quail.

Then there was some more play time, lots of eating and to the movies. We went to see National Treasure, Book of Secrets. It was perfect for little children, they loved it. After the movie we picked up ice cream from Cold Stone Creamery for breakfast and went home.

Tarzan had stayed home to get things ready for the next activity. By now it was 9:30 p.m. and there had been enough sugar consumed that everyone was still wide awake. So, we sat around the fire to roast hot dogs and marshmallows. We even had some smores. It was way too much fun.

See the great fire pit Tarzan made from the inside of an old oven. It worked great for roasting hot dogs and marshmallows and it keeps you nice and toasty.

I'm not sure who was having more fun, Tarzan or the children.

While we were in the movie one of the wires on Sasha's braces broke off. She made it through the movie and ate her dinner and then began to complain that it was getting really painful. It turned out that part of the wire that goes around the outside of her teeth broke off and the part that was left had slipped back and was poking her in the back of her mouth. Tarzan pulled out the wire as far as he could, but it wouldn't come clear out so he got out the skill saw and came in the house and said, "Here, I can fix it." Sasha's eyes got really big and then she burst out laughing. He actually took his wire cutters and cut the wire then they wiggled the last little piece until she was able to pull it out. Tarzan says he is going to add that to his resume "part time dentist." While all this excitement over the braces was going on, we didn't even notice that Talia had stopped in mid air and fallen asleep. Please be sure to notice the Tootsie Pop still in her hand.

We all fell asleep in front of a ninja cartoon and awoke Sunday morning to a fantastic breakfast prepared by Tarzan. He had asked everyone what they wanted for breakfast the night before and gone shopping while we were at the movie. Tristan wanted Honey Nut Cheerios, we sent the box home with them. Sasha wanted eggs, bacon and a buttered flour tortilla on the side. Talia wanted pancakes and everyone had cookie dough ice cream with their breakfast.


We met their parents at church and then later came back to the house where we just visited and ate until they had to move on to visit the next family on their visit list.


Lee and I were so let down when everyone left we just sort of stood in the kitchen and hugged each other trying to decide what to do next. We do love our family.