Family Fun

Thought I'd post a few representative glimpses from my recent trip to see family in the East. Some things we did while I visited:

Read

Every night at bedtime someone reads from the Bible to the younger grandchildren. I got to be that one a few times. Now even they are old enough to want to read aloud themselves to someone, and I provided a listening ear to many chapters of The Magic Treehouse stories.

"Rikki Tikki Tavi" by Rudyard Kipling, I was thrilled to find in an anthology in the house, and gladly read it aloud to W. It is part of the Jungle Books, and great fun to read aloud.


I read The Red Clogs to F.; it is an old story about childhood deception involving some muddy shoes. And part of Leif the Lucky to W.

Cook

F. and W. and I made Snickerdoodles, and one night the German student A.K. took it upon herself to make Goulash Soup and yeast bread, for which she needed a bit of help. That was a yummy dinner!

Garden

I helped A. by planting a strawberry tower using three pots she had around.

She was preparing some large areas of the back yard for seeding a lawn, and when the seed had been raked and rolled in, we spread straw on it so that the rain won't disturb it before it sprouts.

I enjoyed the blossoms on A.'s two apple trees, a Newton Pippin and a Fuji. This one is the Fuji.

Play Games

The grandchildren taught me once again how to play Mancala, and one day I played a couple of hours of a new version of Monopoly with W., aged seven. It's not like it used to be, folks. Three times I landed on a square (see photo) that insisted I owed a fortune in just the interest on my credit card debt. I did not like that one bit, even if I did collect $2 million passing GO. It was fun to own several baseball parks, I will admit.

I helped F. and W. to play Twister, by spinning the arrow, and I took lots of photos of various grandchildren playing soccer or riding their bikes, skateboards, "rip sticks," and scooters. There was basketball, football, and mercifully little electronic gaming this time.

Admire

There were domesticated reptiles and mammals in the household, pets to admire. Also this frog, a discovery of an afternoon who found himself in a precarious spot. I believe he did survive and return to the woods.
Here is a 5th-grader grandson at work knitting a scarf, with his Easter basket gift to his mom by his side. They knit once a week in the classroom, but he takes the idea much further.

So many other household activities I was able to enjoy there, a hanger-on hanging out. I'm so thankful for the welcome, for the love, for the blessing of my husband to be gone for a spell.

Of course, thankful to be home again.