Not yet too old to have fun

Yes, we are blessed. There are people much worse off than us. Found this on the internet. Yes,  it's all how you look at things.

Yes, recently we had grandson William from Nashville with us for about 2 1/2 weeks with us. Of course we would have loved to spend time with his mother too but at least we can talk on the phone. Not the luxury my parents and I had xx years ago.

It's summer. We enjoy sitting on our back porch. This is the view we had for a while. 

These retired people were busy. Mid July is Sarah and Wade's wedding anniversary and a week later is her birthday. The couple needed a nice dinner time for a while. Caleb was with his other grandparents for a horse camp so we volunteered to have the twins for a night, their first with us at our house. They were so excited and it was a lot of fun. 

They love walking around the house looking at things and asking about this and that. Of course we do have memorabilia from our travels and earlier years. This little gnome with his red hood is probably even older than I am. It was a gift to me when I was a child. He sits with his legs dangling from a shelf but ... he has a naked bottom. They thought that was hilarious. There were a lot of questions about our things ... what it was ... where it came from ... etc.

Of course they found the train tracks upstairs. We spent a lot of time with that. The cuckoo clock was very intriguing. We had stopped it because it is quite noisy but had to get it going and they waited impatiently for the bird to come out.

I think we wore them out.

A good night story and they had a good night's sleep.

Next day (July 23) was Sarah's birthday. The twins and I had baked the birthday cookie the evening before and took them and it to their house in time for their nap. Then James and I went to pick Caleb up half-way from his visit with his other grandparents, a 3+ hours roundtrip . When back it was time for the children and me to decorate the birthday cookie and have a birthday dinner. 

Oh yes, a    VIDEO    (0:27)   of the singing!

Wednesday the 29th Sarah started her nightshifts at the hospital again and we volunteered to help out with the children. There was a problem and the nanny could not come. Her roommate had to be tested and the test had not come back yet. You know what the consequences of that is: quarantine for the nanny and her roommate. Papa and Omi jumped into the situation.  The weather forecast was not totally favorable for the coming days so we thought of what to do.

James does most of our shopping so I do not go often. Several weeks ago I was at Lidl though and had bought three different kits of coloring/press-outs ... for just-in-case moments. 

I think I can say that those kits were a success. We started with the animals kit. Some cows and some chickens. First coloring. Then assembling so they are kind of 3D. 

Second day Caleb and Colin were very eager to work on the kit with the planes. OMG, Omi should have read the directions beforehand but we managed anyway. The planes didn't do very well with the flying from the upper deck and the dog chewed on one which caused some tears. We had to do a little repairing with the hot glue gun. Altogether it was a huge success though.

The third set was all dinosaurs, big and small.

We often see the deer in their neighborhood on the way home. They are wild deer!

These three are outdoor children so on Friday we ventured out. They wanted to go to the Meadow Farm close to our house. It was an ordinary day and the weather was not great but the boys always find something interesting.

Questions! Questions! Why is a firetruck coming here. We guessed. Since there was a group of children coming out of the visitor center we guessed that there was some kind of camp going on and the children learned about fire safety. 

Of course we had to walk around the lake too.

We went to our house and as it was too early for lunch we went for a walk in the neighborhood. You have to have a purpose so Omi found for each boy a painted rock to hide. That was fun.

Lunch was on the back patio and the main topic of talk were Colin's socks.

Still no test results after the weekend but we grandparents were on standby. No problem. Can't remember what specifically we did Monday but for Tuesday I had found a gingerbread house kit we never got around to at Christmas time. Sarah had no objections and the children had fun. It was more about the decorating than even the snacking.

By Wednesday the weather had improved. The boys wanted to go to Meadow Farm again ... so we did. We went on a new (to them) path through the woods and found a place were the campers might have worked on a project. 

We found a tree with a rather large growth of something (a fungus?) with lots of beetles on it. No problem spending lots of time here.

Because Sarah suddenly was scheduled to work an extra night we planned on Thursday to visit the Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden. James and I are members and as such we can get tickets for a visit at a certain time. We had tickets for 10 am to take advantage that it is cooler in the morning and hopefully less people. At the entrance the children each got a pamphlet to look out for certain sculptures. 

The sculptures moved by the wind ... and by little hands (it didn't say "don't touch").

When I read the pamphlet and asked what this one reminded them off Caleb guessed right: a school of fish. After that they were very interested in the sculptures.

Cute little thing. I have to find out what it is.

The exit!

Papa and Omi had thought about a special treat because they had been so good. Oh no, Sweet Frog was closed. But Bruster was not. A bit expensive but ... in emergencies?

The next day: no grandsons duty. We almost felt a bit lost, ha-ha.

Exciting news from Nashville too. August 4 the demolition of Helen's house started. Helen had a lot of hurdles to overcome but she found a contractor she feels she can trust and things are happening now. Of course it will be a slow process. The plans are in the final stages and then permits need to be applied for etc. Of course we all hope that it will be a good experience for her and William from now on.

Helen had to work that first day but Ben was so very kind to provide me with this photo and some videos and we are thankful for that.

William school started at the same time too ... virtual. These are difficult times for many. Sigh.