At the cabin

We are on our way to the cabin. We flew up with Laura and the kids, and this is a shot of the airplane ride and trying to watch a movie on Grandma's iphone. It was hard to get those earphones to stay in! They did a good job on the plane, but it was nice to get to the cabin.
Here is silly Ben on the porch - he is a busy boy, and so darn cute.
The kids were making a dessert (ready made individual graham cracker crusts and pudding and whip cream) They got new aprons from Great Grandma (that she made!) and wanted to make something, and this was the best I could do. They were made much more delicious with the addition of a flag.
Good to the last lick!!!
No trip to the cabin is complete without a trip to the BIG FISH. He marks the entrance to our little town and is a big hit with the kids. We are going to try to make this an annual event - our picture with the fish. It will be fun to see the kids grow and change. I wonder how old they will be when they start to roll their eyes when we make them go.

I didn't take one picture of the kids on the boat or in the new sandbox that Grandpa built for them. I keep saying I need to get better, but I still leave that camera in my purse more often than not!!

It's Been Awhile!!

I have been an absentee blogger - but I have a good excuse. We have been at our cabin in northern Wisconsin for the past 3 weeks and no computer!! It was very relaxing and I have very few pictures to share, but I will post the few I have in the next few days.
Before we left for the cabin, I hosted the girls and some of their friends and their children for a swimming party. I won't even attempt to identify the people in the pictures - all cute moms in sunglasses and very cute kids with floaties. But I do want to post a few pictures to show that I can take them!! I took some video too, but I haven't mastered that yet:-)


It was fun and HOT, and it stayed hot the whole time we were gone. Now that we are back the temperatures are a little cooler - but I confess I want it hot so I can get in the pool. We had lots of cool temps in Wisconsin.

Elizabeth and Grandma Day

Look who's back at Grandma's with her cute, new glasses. Elizabeth and I had another fun day together on Wednesday. She just got her glasses and she really reminds me of her mom with her glasses. Laura got her glasses at age 7, and here is little E at just age 4. She was doing some serious cutting and taping. She really likes tape!!
We made a snack for the pool party that will be here on Friday. I'm not sure how good it will be - it's a new recipe. But it is full of gumdrops and other sugary things so I'm sure the kids will like it. Elizabeth always likes to sample the ingredients!
And of course she has to lick the spoon.
Our finished treats. Tomorrow we will see how the crowd likes them. They are not tempting me a bit, which is nice.

It was another special day with Elizabeth. We had lunch at Subway - her favorite - and just read some books and did a little coloring. We met her mom and little brother for ice cream at the end of our time together. (so neither Laura nor I had to drive so far to get her home)

Today is Thursday and I have been home all day with the air conditioning people. It is really hot in Texas and our bedroom air isn't working correctly. So... we are getting a new unit. Our house is fairly large and it has 3 a/c units. We replaced one last year and as the bedroom one needed replacing we just decided to replace the remaining one too. Fine and dandy except they are $$$. There are so many fun things I could do with that money, but on a day like today I do really appreciate good air conditioning!! It makes me very thankful that I didn't live here way back when! We are also hopeful that the 3 new units will be as energy efficient as they claim to be and so we will see some savings on our monthly bill. Time will tell.

The workmen will be back tomorrow, but I will be outside enjoying my 2 daughters, 3 grandchildren and some of their friends for a pool party. I hear the diving board is greatly anticipated by a few of the 4-5 year olds that will be here. I will try to get some pictures.

Cooper and Grandma and Grandpa Night

I had a little trouble loading pictures so they are a little out of order today. We had Cooper on Friday night because his mom was at a girls night and his dad was out of town. We began the night out with pizza at a local kids pizza place. (not good for grandma, the food is not so good, but it is good for kids) We then came home and swam and had a little ice cream. This pic is at the end of the evening with the cone. He ate every last bite!

This is a picture of the new Nemo fish we got for our pool. It is kind of tippy, but he did ok with it. He liked squirting it with the squirt gun better than riding it though.
Here he is coloring at the pizza place.
And this is the beginning - the cute Cooper ready for his fun dinner with G and G. Someday I'll get this right.

We had fun with Cooper, although we were glad to see Jessica come and spend the night. He got up around 1 and was up alot throughout the night. Lucky me - I slept through it all. And he was up early too!! Poor Jessica.

More Elizabeth and Grandma Day

After Elizabeth and I finished our tea we walked across to the gazebo that had been so nicely decorated. Elizabeth had picked out her brand new dress to wear and it coordinated beautifully with the patriotic decorations.
Beautiful girl.
They had this flag painted on the grass. You can see more of the gazebo in the background. We had a gazebo in our last house and this one makes me miss it very much. Our new house doesn't really fit the gazebo look.

We stopped at our favorite lunch spot on the way home (Subway) and got our sandwiches to go. We ate a quick lunch and then got to our favorite activity - playing games. Today in keeping with our theme, we played The Princess and the Pea. It is a cute game where you stack the bedding and try to get the princess on top before the bedding collapses. We tried, but we weren't successful.

After that was supposed to be nap, but since time was short we opted for a show in the movie room. I had a few more things planned but I will save them for next time.

Elizabeth and Grandma Day

I have wanted to start a tradition with my granddaughter of just the 2 of us spending the day together. I confess that we don't do it nearly often enough, but when we do, we have a wonderful time. Today was my lucky day and I planned for us to have a tea party at a little tea shop for children near our house. Elizabeth was very excited and a little shy when we first got there. A little class for "princesses" was just finishing and she enjoyed watching the little girls play musical chairs and freeze tag in their matching Cinderella dresses. When the class was over we were the only guests in the tea room for most of the time. She got to pick out a dress to wear, and this was the first one on. She wasn't too sure about keeping this on for the tea so off it came. Then the hostess suggested she try one of their brand new dresses - I think it is a Sleeping Beauty dress.
This was the keeper!
We were served GIANT cupcakes with a ton of icing. I confess that we both ate ours all up and they were very sweet. We were also served raspberry tea and it was good too. I am not usually a tea drinker, but I really liked this tea. Elizabeth had fun adding one lump or two to our drinks. (She took 2 or more - I took 1)
While we were waiting for our tea, the pretty princess got some lovely pink eyeshadow. (with glitter of course)
Pink lipstick...
and sparkly pink nail polish.
It was kind of hard to eat with wet nails so we waited and blew and blew and blew.
The pretty princess ready for her tea.
After (or during- it took a looong time to eat those big cupcakes!) we had a little tiara break. There were several to choose from - this seemed to be the favorite.
A little boa action completed the look. We had a wonderful time and this was only the beginning. I told her that the best way to start your day was with dessert first and so that's what we did!! I took a few pictures of the rest of our day and I will post those tomorrow.

Thank you Elizabeth for a priceless memory for your grandma. I love you!

Movie Day

My daughter Laura was watching all 3 kids last week and remembered she had a doctor appointment. She wondered if I would mind watching all 3 by myself - and I said I would, but what would I do with them as they are all very busy and like to have Grandma's attention at the same time? As you can see from the cute picture of Ben, I took the easy way out and we watched some thrilling shows, like Thomas the Tank Engine and everyone's favorite, Clifford, The Big Red Dog.
Cooper and Elizabeth enjoying the show and the snack.
Here is Cooper very engrossed in the show. I did not fill that container with food, they just had some bunny crackers and maybe a few m & m's tucked in there. One of the big attractions of our "movie room" is the candy cupboard. The grandchildren all know exactly where it is and they are very good about just taking a few pieces.
You can see all 3 sitting nicely watching the show. (Ben didn't last long - before long he was flipping his chair upside down, and diving off the back of it. He's very scary, and very sweet. I got him to sit in my lap for a few minutes which was nice. Elizabeth and Cooper don't look away from the TV for long!)
And this last picture is one I think is so cute - there are a few dress up things in the grandchildren's room. These are some bug costumes. Elizabeth is a bee, Ben is a ladybug, and Cooper is a beautiful butterfly.

That was just one day last week. I have been a bad blogger about not updating this blog. If I want this to be a recap of our lives I had better be a little more diligent in posting!! We had some big rain last week, but we are in some hot weather now, which means lots of pool time.