Gracie's 5th Birthday

Yesterday was our grand daughter, Gracie's fifth birthday. She still is such a little peanut it is hard to believe that she is 5 years old now. Julie had invited so many friends and family that the party was planned for our house. When Gracie arrived she was mesmerized by the cake Gramma made for her.


Gracie chose to have a Ladybug themed birthday because she has been wanting a ladybug pillow pal so bad. Guess what? She got one!! Along with a bunch of other fun presents

Doesn't she look pretty in the crocheted hat from Gramma and Grampa?! Time to blow out the candles - she blew them out one at a time - savoring the moment I guess.

After everything was cleaned up it was time to get dressed for Trick-Or-Treating Tyler chose to be Batman this year and Gracie dressed up in her Raggedy Ann dress and pinafore that Gramma made her last year (she finally grew into it)

They had a lot of fun gathering all the candy, but were ready to stop when they got tired and cold. Look at their stashes...

Looks like Gracie's favorite was the airheads that Gramma handed out. I always love handing out the candy (and we get a LOT of trick-or-treaters) because I like to hear the comments from the kids. We handed out a variety of candy like Smarties, for the little ones and one little boy was so excited he was running back to his dad saying "Dad, we got SMARTIES" as he is waving them in the air. The older kids got airheads and one kid said "wow! I'm coming back to your house next year!" and then another one said "This is the second best treat of the night!" When I asked him what was the best treat - he told me someone handed out full sized Snickers. Not sure who that someone was, but my grand kids didn't bring one home in their bag. When the kids dump out their stash I get right in there to see what their first pick is going to be and which one they plan to share with Gramma (tehe). Tyler was very quick to say that I could have his individual bag of mini carrots. Who gives carrots to trick-or-treaters?

What will this next year hold for our little Gracie? We are seeing some gradual changes with her in school now. She is willing to write her name now because Teacher, Mrs. LePard taught her how. What am I?, Chopped liver?? I have been trying to teach her for the last year, but then I remembered how our Joey refused to put his own coat on until he was five. Once he had his fifth birthday he could do all kind of things - including putting his own coat on!! Amazing how they can have such a strong mind set. We pray that Gracie has a growing desire to be more like Jesus every day.

Christi

Water Bucket Brigade

When playing outside in the summer it is a MUST to include WATER.  I picked up some sponges from the dollar store and let the kids have a little game of transferring the water from one bucket to the other with the use of the sponges. I was amazed how well Gracie did and she didn’t give up, she even “won” round one! What’s a game without a treat, right? so they each got a tootsie roll. Well, that spurred them on to do another round, but then who should arrive, but the ICE CREAM MAN!  Normally I don’t keep cash on hand but today was their lucky day and they each were able to get a treat from the ice cream man. 

Tyler chose a Jolly Rancher Ice Cone

and Gracie chose a Shrek ice cream pop she said it was sour, but she liked the gumball eyes. So what did Charlie get?

A RICE CAKE!!!!??? Oh well, maybe when he is older.  Thankfully he doesn’t know the difference yet and he was very happy with his rice cake.    

Hope you are all having a great summer!

Christi   

Let’s Clean House Grandma

It was cleaning day at Grandma’s house and so Gracie and Grandma made it a fun time while still getting much accomplished.

 

First Gramma we need to get these carpets vacuumed:)

 

 

Next Gramma we need to get these windows cleaned.  Watch I will show you how we need to do this.  “Don’t forget to get in these grooves Gramma.”

 

                                                   Uncle Jeff had to take our picture.

Next she helped Gramma

wash down the walls.          They were only going to clean the living room but Gracie did not want to quit so Gramma let her clean the slider going out onto the deck.  Gracie was a great little helper that day.

Up and coming future Baseball Star

We have enjoyed watching our Grandson Tyler grow up and learn baseball.  We have watched him in T-ball and now it is really fun watching him for the first year of machine pitch and where they keep track of 3 outs and runs.  He has really improved and is quite a hitter.  He has also learned the art of running bases and really likes it if he gets on base and then gets to run the bases if the next person up gets a hit.  Keep up the Great Work Tyler.

 

Come on pitching machine bring me your best stuff!

                                                  Tyler ready to field anything hit toward him.

 

Aw man! I almost had that one.     Tyler on base ready to run.

Traditions

Ever since Tyler was 2 years old we started a tradition to have our picture taken with the grandkids at Christmas time. The first year was just Tyler and Gramma, but the following year Grampa joined us and we have made this an annual tradition. 20042005

2006 2007

Look how we all have changed over the years. 2008 Here Gracie is wearing a jumper that I made her from one of her Great Grandma Katherine's skirts that I was given after she passed away so it is very very special.

We usually go to Sears to have our pictures taken and then head off to Steak 'n Shake for dinner. Gracie was POSITIVE that she was NOT going to have her picture taken, but we got there without a scene. Once we were in the room the photographer did such a good job that Gracie wanted to keep posing and both kids did EXACTLY what was asked of them. I cannot wait for Dec 21st so I can pick them up.

Normally we go on the first Saturday of December, but this year Dale's brother, Phil, was visiting from Alabama on that weekend, and since time is pretty precious when he arrives we just cancel everything else. This year the only date we could fit in was last night. So here we are all dressed up to go, and I forget to snap a picture. Guess you will have wait just like me to see this years photo.

After dinner at Steak 'n Shake we "normally" come back to Gramma's and do some Christmas baking in the kitchen, but since this is NOT a normal year and BECAUSE it is a school night we divided up our fun and the kids each decorated a Rice Krispy Treat Christmas Tree using both regular and mini M&M's (my personal favorite) with a yellow Spree Candy for the star.

The kids really had fun decorating their Christmas trees and I must admit - more M&M's ended up on the tree instead of their tummy.

Florida – Day 5 & 6

MAGIC KINGDOM!!! NEED I SAY ANYTHING MORE??!! This is my

(Christi) FAVORITE park!!

 

   Gracie loves the Characters if you haven’t learned that by now.                                              Wish I could have got Jeremy’s picture by Captain Jack Sparrow which is his favorite movie character from Pirate’s of the Caribbean.     Dale’s one and only purchase was this giant Caramel, Chocolate and Pecan Apple. It was like a massive turtle candy wrapped around a giant apple.  It took him a long time to eat it all.

  One of the fun things we did in 1995 was to ride Alice’s Tea Cup Ride.  Back then all five of us fit in but now we were still able to fit the four of us in. The guys just said “hang on Mom, we are going to make this tea cup spin”  And they sure did, just look at Dale in fast motion.                                                                 Gracie was still so unsure of going on any rides and oh, the carrying on and crying when Julie wanted to take her on It’s a Small World ride.  Julie knew she would like it once she got on it that she very patiently talked her through it.  Once Gracie heard the music she quieted right down and started singing along with the words.  By the end of the ride she wanted to go on again.                                                       There are so many things to do and see at Magic Kingdom. Here, Tyler is trying to pull Excaliber’s sword from the stone. Gracie wasn’t sure about the carousel.  Sometimes she is fine with the one at the mall and other times not, but she finally decided she wanted to go on the horses.                                               Playing at the 100 Acre Woods and at Mickey and Minnie’s houses was a treat for the kids.  They really got into that.  We didn’t stay for the fireworks at night as we have had so many late nights and it was hard for the kids to endure, but it was dark by the time we left the park so we got to see Cinderella’s Castle all lit up. Julie and Jeremy took the kids back to the condo/resort while Jeff, Joey, Dale and I went back to Disney’s Hollywood Studios to watch Fantasmic – a laser show featuring Mickey Mouse and MANY of the Disney characters.  That certainly was most certainly worth the wait.

Friday was spent leisurely again, but we did visit Downtown Disney and saw this dragon made out of LEGOS – quite amazing!                         

Our flight home on Saturday was early – up at 5:00 AM and out the door by 6:15.  I think by now we were all ready to get back to home life even though regretful that it all had to end. 

Jeff entertains Gracie as we wait to board the plane.  The boys were such a huge help with the kids so that Jeremy and Julie could have some time alone, but after all – they really love their only niece and nephew.  What a blessing it was for Dale and I to spend a week with our adult children and our grandchildren.  It is a trip that we will cherish forever.