Where have I been???

If it's May...then it's grandma time!  Darrin and Kris try to get away during May for their anniversary (27th this year!) so between Auntie, Kris' mom and I we stay with the kids.  I picked up Nick from school on Wed. and my 'time' began!  I took both dogs with me too, which was a 1st for Gigi and Kalee was happy to see the kids and cats!

Amber had Lacrosse practice every day after school so Nick and I were on our own for dinner.  He made burgers for us the 1st night.  They weren't too bad either!

And Nick and I had to do our Monopoly game on his Xbox!  It takes a long time to finish a game, which we didn't get to finish!  The dogs enjoyed some quiet time watching us play!

Nick was showing me one of his race car games.

Of course, there's always the homework and chore lists that you need to oversee...not the most fun of the 'job'! HA  Kids are good students, thank goodness, so they didn't need any assistance from grandma in that area!







I did buy a new game for us to play, which was fun.  Monopoly card game is still my favorite...Nick's too.  This one is called:

The green cards ask you to match a picture card.  For example, 'has a handle'...I would throw down my coffee mug picture.  Something to sit on, I would throw down the tent.  You get five picture cards and you want to get rid of them as fast as you can.  Fun game.

It goes quick but we sat until 10 Friday night playing it!  I finally "cried uncle" and said "ok, grandma's getting tired.  Time to watch our movie!"



We watched "The Wall" and it was good...special effects really cool!  Matt Damon was in it and did a good job. This was Gigi snuggling with Amber!

The girls were really good and Gigi finally got used to the two cats.  When we first got to the house, she kept chasing them.  They run pretty fast, which is good...and by the time we left all four of them would be in the same room together and actually sitting within 2 feet of each other!  HA

Dogs did get wore out!  But Kalee heard every little noise at night!  

Kids are growing up so fast and could stay by themselves...but we all feel so much better being there at night for them.  Really Amber was the one who asked us to stay.  She doesn't like to be in the house without an adult at night!  Nick doesn't care one way or another!  Must be a boy thing!  HA





So another year has come and gone...before you know it Amber will be off to college and won't care about grandma....Nick will just want grandma around for games and pizza!  But that's ok...when I get to the nursing home that's about all I'll want too!

What a weekend!!

It was a really fun weekend with the kids....I think I ate a lot but I also did a lot!!!  Or should I say moved a lot!!  Yikes!  They sure keep you busy...although, I cheated yesterday and watched the entire Lions game with Nick!  Amber was watching YouTubes and some of the game....I compromised by playing several games of Monopoly (the card game, which is wonderful!!!!  love that card game!).    Makes a great stocking stuffer!  It's a quick game with all the same real estate of the original game.

I'm reposting video's of the kids and I from the weekend.  These are the actual video's..only about 30 sec. but kinds funny!   We just have some more memories of our time together....Kalee is still sleeping, although i did take her for a 1/2 mile walk about two hours ago!  She loves those kids and cats!!

And look what Darrin and Kris dropped off at the house!!!  Yum...I also got a bottle of wine!!!  But I love my cherry pie!!!  And it came from Traverse City!  Can't get any better than that!!!  Thanks, kids!!!

Start of Grandma's Weekend!

My weekend with the kids started with picking up kids from school, having dinner then playing with the Wi!  Nick challenged me to a football game on Wi, which doesn't work out so well for this Wi challenged grandma!  I did get two interceptions!  WooHoo!  I sill don't know how I did but I did and that's what counts!

This was kids doing the Wi Dance Challenge!

Of course the kids had to get Grandma involved in the Wi Dance Challenge!  Yikes!  None of my kids got any rhythm from their 'mum'!!!
Today Nick has a BD Nerf party to go to so Amber and I are going shopping!!  Let's hope my energy level keeps up!!!  More coffee, more coffee please!!!!

More GeoCaching!

Yep, this past Wed. was another GeoCaching day!  I printed out two maps, one for Amber and one for Nick.  The geocache we were looking for actually were hidden downtown Oxford.  So each of them had to give grandma directions to the site for us to look for the treasure!  Kids are learning but don't even know it! 

This was our beautiful Amber giving grandma directions to the first cache!  Which, we couldn't find...this turned out to be a grandma error!  When I was getting the map set up to print, I must have dragged the 'end point' without realizing it.  We weren't on the right trail!  But now we know...so guess where we're going this Wed.! 

On to our 2nd cache with Nick giving grandma directions and YIPPEE we found it!  I know it doesn't look like much but when you've been hunting for something for two weeks, we settled for a medicine bottle wrapped in duct tape! 

This is the log we had to sign!  Very small but lots of signatures on it!!  Hard to write on!  We did put in a ring we made from Shrinky Dink for the next person.  You don't have to leave a trinket but we thought we would!
So off to the bead store and lunch, then to our 3rd cache for the day!  We headed to Seymour Lake Park where an "easy, children's cache" was hidden.  Well, guess who couldn't find the "easy, children's cache"!  You guessed it!  Grandma!  So, we thought we'll just look up the map/coordinates when we get home and head to the 1st Geocache we tried to find last week.  We just knew where it was! 

We even dragged Kalee with us this time...it was an easy walk on the Polly Ann Trail and since we just "knew" where the cache was we thought she'd enjoy the ride. 
Well, we never found it either!  I guess one cache out of four was good!! 

 So after a mini blizzard treat and water for Kalee, we headed home to look up the caches on the computer (again!).

NOW, we really know where they are!!!  So this Wed. we're heading out again!!  I just know we'll find them.  How hard can it be!

What a wonderful weekend!

Yes, it's been a wonderful weekend!! Earlier this week, Amber and I talked about her spending the night this weekend because her brother had his flag football championship (which, by the way they won!!! I'll have more on that after my son sends out info!). Well, my daughter suggested that the three of us get together on Sat. and have lunch and run some errands! Sounded good to me as I don't get much time to spend with my daughter. So we met around 10ish on Sat. and our first stop was to Starbucks for our 'treat'. I asked where our next stop was and Amber was a little evasive but my daughter said we had to stop at Target as Dawn and Darrin purchase items to send to our troops in Afghanistan. She wanted to get a priority box filled and mailed, which made sense to me.
When we pulled into the Target parking lot I noticed Amber brought with her a book and her coffee. I asked why the book and she said "oh, I like to read when I shop." hmmm Well, little did I know we were walking not to Target but to the manicure/pedicure shop! My daughter was treating the three of us to a pedicures!!! My first and last pedicure was the treat of my daughter which was several years ago. What a great surprise! We all got to sit next to one another while enjoying our pedicures!! THANK YOU, Dawn!!! And Amber for keeping such a wonderful surprise!
These are Amber's crackle toe nails...pink and white...really cute!! We're sitting with our feet under dryers. Who knew...dryers for the toenails! Well, it worked! Yes, these are flip flops Amber has on her feet and she even brought her old grandma a pair too!! Wasn't that sweet!
So off the three of us went to Target for Dawn to pick up supplies for the troops! Yes, we are still in our flip flops!
Then it was off to lunch!! Yum...the restaurant is called Pei Wei (which is owned by PF Chang's). It was SO good and yes, I brought home my leftovers and my daughter's as well! Pei Wei is like a fast food PF Chang's.

Then off to Tradder Joe's for some meats and other groceries, then back to Dawn's house, picked up my car and Amber and I took off to our house for the weekend! Oh, Dawn also gave us home made applesauce she canned this fall along with her home made roasted tomato sauce! Double yum!!
When we got home, Amber fried up some chicken sausage and we added some of Dawn's home made sauce, cooked wheat pasta and made a salad. Great dinner!
Of course we had to give Gracie a treat! Amber loves when Grace eats whipped cream so guess what I had to buy this week! Here's Grace enjoying her whipped cream!



We had a nice night then up early to have breakfast, play with Kalee and Amber helped me make Sweet and Sour meatballs (sound weird but they are really good!). Then we went downstairs to get out my Christmas decorations. Yes, my tree is up (Amber took the picture) with Amber's assistance and some decorating is also done for Christmas. I'm hosting our Complex Cloth fiber group Christmas party this coming Sat. so I like to have the tree up for them...and the kids are coming up from Indy for Thanksgiving so they can start to get in the spirit as well!
This is Kalee while Amber and I were decorating the tree...she still doesn't know about the tree nor is she allowed to roam in our family room downstairs yet!

Oh in between everything, Amber and I would be taking Kalee outside and also letting our neighbors dogs out (Miss Lori was having surgery). We also walked Kalee and Cody together which was good for Kalee. Later this afternoon, Amber was getting bored so we made molasses cookies! After our great dinner, I met Auntie around 5:30 this afternoon and she took Amber home with her to wait for the kids to return from the football game. Auntie lives just a street down from her brother so they don't have far to go. In fact, on Sat. Amber walked over to Aunties carrying her suitcase! The neighbors though she was running away from home!
I'm pooped now but I wouldn't have traded this weekend for anything!!!! Just a great time!!!! And one I'm going to remember for a long time....and if I forget, I have my blog to jar my memory!!

Thanks, Dawn and Amber once again!!!! I love you both so much!!!

Grandma Time

Well, my four days with the grand kids is over but I had a blast! Even Mandy had a good time but she did have to take her beauty naps. Maybe I should have done that! This post won't have any of my 'art work' in it but some of the kids! Honestly, I am only 64 but in the video at the end of this post I look like 90! Kids had fun face painting and we even got one of Nick's friends from the neighborhood involved (with is mom's permission!).

But check out the pattern in the pillow next to Mandy! That's some inspiration isn't it! Now on to the rest of our time together.

This was one of the projects Nick and I worked on. He bought a solar kit what you could make different toys from and he elected to make a boat. Of course the sun hasn't been out so no solar power..although, I'm sure the wires aren't attached properly so his dad will have to assist!

This was another 'calm' project Nick did building with his lego's and of course the 3 of us played Monopoly!
Now..on to the Face Painting! Amber got a face painting kit and we had a ball. This was Amber with her 1st face painting grandma did for her. We started off not being too daring! The picture in the bathroom is Amber seeing her face for the first time.





















Nick wanted red, white and blue. Same here with Nick, seeing his face painted for the first time.















This was Amber's 2nd face painting of a butterfly I did on Sunday. Doesn't she look great! I love the colors on her. She kept the paint on so her mom and dad could see when they got home in the afternoon.


Nick and his friend wanted to reflect a football team. Nick wanted to be a Lion football player..I know it looks like a Tiger but I didn't know how to draw a lion! Close enough, right! His friend, Matthew, wanted to be a Viking football player and Nick did his face painting. Good job!
On Sunday, Matthew came back over and the kids talked about college football. So Matthew wanted to be a Michigan State player. Amber did a great job on him and then wrote on his arms too.
Nick want to be U of M (YEA!!) so I painted 'M' on his cheeks and filled in with yellow. How cute is that!! And he has his hair cut again which makes him look so great!!!
So now for some video's! I also feel in love with Spike, the bearded lizard Nick has!! Who knew!! He's a sweetheart!!! I loved feeding him so I had to take a video when Nick fed him.




And this next video will probably come back to haunt me at some point in my life but I think it's rather funny. I look like I'm 90 years old!!! Or maybe I just look that way but never see myself on video! While Amber was painting me, I was working on Nick's solar boat. Nick was the photographer and did a pretty good job even though he was laughing so hard he could hardly hold the camera still!



So I hope you all got a little chuckle from us! Now on to doing some art work of my own!!

Wed. with the kids

Wed. was a fun day with one of Amber's friends who had a sleep over. Only problem is her name is Amber also! Above picture is the girls getting ready to do their 'dance routine'. Really cute. I put a video at the bottom of this post. The 'singer' you hear in the background is actually Nick. He and I were playing a card game and when the music came on he was singing..so funny! but adorable!

Here is Nick explaining to me how to play this game. Geezzz It was some space battle game and I still don't know the name of it or how to play. Amber did say Nick was making up rules as he played but heck you couldn't prove it by me!
We had a busy day planned and started off going to the park. This is a great park (at least I think so!). Of course, Nick had to jump off the swing just to make me nervous and Amber kept swinging so high I thought she was going over the top..not really but it looked like it!
Nick was in the shot somewhere!

So after the park, we headed to the bead shop. For Amber's BD present, she and I are taking a bead class either this Friday or next Friday. We're waiting to hear back for sure on the date. Then we went to a new toy store downtown Oxford. Can't remember the name of it now but it was cute. Lots of different types of toys which seemed to be educational vs just 'toys'.
After lunch we went to another new boutique which the girls wanted to go to. Nice shop but we didn't buy anything. Off to the library for the Sky Lab show which was over an hour long! Girls said they were bored but I think enjoyed it..ok, maybe they didn't. Nick seemed more intrested in the lab and took a paper with him showing all the stars and planets. I'll have to call tonight to see if he went outside to find some of the planets. he was reading the names (he's only 6!) of the planets and pointing out where each one was! The show was similar to what we saw at Cranbrook last year and I think Nick had/has more of an interest in this.
So back home and grandma 'opened' the pool! This was a first and it was fun for kids and me. They are all great swimmers so I wasn't hesitate about being on 'life guard duty'.
Amber tried to hide from getting her picture taken but I knew she could only hold her breath for a little while. although, she and Nick swim the length of the pool under water holding their breath the entire time!!!
This is our little FISH! He loves the water and is a really good swimmer. hope he wants to join the swim team when he gets to high school.
Check out this dive!
and our trio (my Amber is hiding again!) but they did have fun.

Park & Painting MQAI

Yesterday was play time with grand kids. We went to the new Playscape at the county park. The rocks on the flyer are from Nick's 'fossil dig'!

Kids started off playing on the 'cattails'. The flooring in the playscape is all rubberized and actually was laid out and maintained really well.

This is the view as you come into the playscape. It's suppose to represent 'up north' in Michigan.
After playing out in the 80+ degree sun, we decided to walk in the woods along the trail. Nice and shady and we had a fun time looking for frogs, birds and just listening to nature sounds! Yep...if you 'gotta' go, you 'gotta' go!
This is the fossil dig the kids played in. Really Nick played it in for quite sometime. Amber was having a major hot flash at this point and wanted to just go home. Another view of the playscape. The small cabin in the back was really cute for kids and built very well.
They have slate rocks all around the entire area, which Nick had to climb.
Flowers were planted everywhere!
Closeup of the cabin
Back home Amber worked on making clay 'thank yous' for folks who were at her BD party.
Nick put together his first model airplane. He did a great job! He read the instructions and followed 'snapping' the pieces together. He's quite patient when he works on things.
His completed model!
Amber filled this tray up with her little clay 'thank yous'. She did a nice job and had name tags next to each one.
So just to show I did do some 'quilting' work last week end. I finished quilting this small piece using some of the painted tyvek birds I did last month. This was my practice piece for my MQAI quilt.
Colors aren't great on this one but I finished the quilting of the bird and today I'm going to quilt the background and then burn away some of the Tyvek! Yippee! I love that part! burning!!
So that's about it for now. Friday night a few of us are going to Lapeer to attend an opening reception at the Gallery 194 . Mary does beautiful art work and her quilts will be a compliment to the glass by David Hilty which is also on exhibit. Should be a nice evening.