Wednesday, July 10, 2013

Nashville time

Last day for now. Have to get back to Virginia tomorrow. But today we have more time with William. Too hot to go for a walk in the pm so we decide after his nap to go to close-by department stores. He has a great time running off some steam. Even tried out a dorm chair. I think he has a few years until college.


Exercising our grandparental rites of spoiling we also went to the DQ. William invented a new game captured in the video!


Bye-bye William! Hope to see you soon again!

Monday, July 8, 2013

Special Nashville weekend - blessed day

Friday June 5th ... Sarah and Wade arrived at Nashville Airport. This is going to be a special weekend with my girls and their families. William knows their names and it is so cute when he calls them. 


We all take turns finding new ways to set up Williams favorite ... the train track.


Helen has worked for quite some time on a gift for her husband. Time to give it to him.


William helps to unpack.


Ben loves his new quilt. Helen still has to do the hand-sewing around the binding but she decided it would be easier if she didn't have to do that in secret. It had been difficult enough to keep it a secret so long. Proud of my girl. She did a beautiful job. So talented. 


After-nap-time snack. He is doing pretty well with the fork too. Video!



We were not blessed with the most beautiful weather this week and unfortunately it made a dent into our Saturday plans. There is a creek in the back where there is none usually.


It let up in the afternoon so we went to Cheekwood to have lunch and then we walked around the gardens a while. It kept dripping from the trees though and the benches were wet.


We were all wondering what this is? Those "rivets" went all the way to the other side.



We decided to stop at a famous ice cream place on the way home. Helen says that this is a famous place!  Sarah was entertaining William while we were waiting. Fishface?




Finally!


No nap today!




A little bribe to take a bath at Omi's so that he could fall asleep in the car going home.



Well, it worked. William had a good night's sleep and was awake early enough for church. Service starts at 9 am. This is St. Phillip's bulletin of this Sunday:


We were all SO PROUD of our boy. He could not have been any better. Those in the congregation who were not already surely fell in love with him. We even heard about some teary eyes.
Got some Videos:
Here! (only 11 seconds, operator error)
And here!



Godfather Jon had a fancy camera and there will be some nice pictures later.

Afterwards we had a little party at our place.


We had fruit and nibbles and yes, mimosas (besides ice tea etc.)


And Kathy's recipe original and vegetarian breakfast casserole!


We were 14 so we were all over the place.



Ha-ha. Helen had found the top layer of the cake from the wedding blessing ceremony in England (March 2006). In England and often in Germany you save the top layer for the baptism of the first child.


It is usually fruit cake ...


 ... which I normally like. But no, this one is beyond it.


Wimbledon (muted). Andy Murray won. Yeah!





In the picture above you can see behind William his great-grandmother Geegee who celebrated her 90th birthday on Saturday. Congratulations, Jessie!

After everybody had left, we watched some photos and videos thru Apple TV. Everybody had fun with that and William loved seeing himself.


At 2:30 James had to bring Sarah and Wade to the Airport. It was so nice to be together as a family.


Nashville time

Saturday June 22 ... We drove to Nashville. We were off a little later then usual because we had Schatzi and Jimmy spending the night with us. But we could leave them. Sarah and Wade came later to get them.
We thought the highway would be not so full because it was a Saturday. Wrong! All those trucks and cars this time.
But, finally we were there and saw Helen and William a lot and Ben too. William liked to go for a walk with his Pops in the evening.


Because Helen and  Ben were still renovating their house after their water damage, William spent most of the next nights with us. He is a lot of fun. We had a pretty good routine for going to bed. After the bath he would remind me that taking care of the teeth was next. But this is Sunday morning, ready for church.


He insisted on Grandpa's hand going to church.


Watching Kipper-time on Grandpa's lap.


He loves his big blocks.



We wanted to help Helen and Ben with the renovation. Painting the kitchen was one of the things we could do.




But our major job: playing with William! Helen had bought his favorite train track toy after Christmas at ALDI. Ah, I so wished we had an ALDI in Virginia. It's a major supermarket chain in Germany. Good stuff.



After dinner play time.


Once in a while James and I had just us-time. So a beer on the back deck is not unreasonable.


Helen was at rowing practice so James and I took William to "throw rocks".



Yup, there is Mommy. Her shoes are on the dock anyway.


One day when we needed to shop at Walmart for something, we got more excitement then usual. We arrived just after a car had just driven into a glass wall.



William's favorite after his nap was mango cream.


Omi thinks of new toys ... from the kitchen closet. A little video for William fans!


William is first at the dinner table. Ha, he is a growing boy!


Second Sunday morning. William loves the children's sermon. He did bring Mommy's puddleduck. It was Helen's favorite many years ago.


After the service James gave a talk about his camino walk. It was very well received. Fun. 


And finally between Ben, James, Helen and me we had Helen's closet done. Yeah, something to check off the to-do list.


William was a big help at the lumberyard.


Another good game. And yes, a video!



Almost two weeks. Busy every day. Quite tired at the end of the day but those little arms around the neck make up for everything. And the next blog will be about a GREAT weekend to come.