The Weekened

I had a very busy weekend with my grandchildren. Here is a blow-by-blow, for those who might be interested. (If you aren't interested, don't read it!)

Friday:
Picked the kids up at about 4:30 in Muncie. They were ready to go...and seemed happy to be coming to Plainfield. (Not at all concerned about not going to Cincy with Nathan, Kendra, and Wednesday for a soccer tournament.) Kendra sent along two envelopes with money that all three of the children had saved from their allowances: one labeled "hot lunches" and the other labeled "homeless persons fund". (Apparently they also have envelopes for the Humane Society and Riley Hospital.) Each envelope is marked on the outside with the amount contributed by which child on what date. Kendra said there was $55 total, but I added up the amounts on the outside of the envelopes, and if that was accurate, it was more like $45--still a sizeable amount of money for little kids! The envelopes that came with us were to be given to Grandpa Phil for his feeding mission for the homeless at church--a sort of early birthday present. I was also given instructions about how to care for Ryan because of his cast, etc., etc.

We stopped at the McD's in Muncie for supper. (Good choice because by the time we hit the Indy area, the heavy traffic had dissipated.) The children have graduated from Happy Meals to Mighty Kids Meals--more money and more grease, but they were happy. The prize was a dragon from the How to Train Your Dragon movie. At home, while I tried to install the Spore game that I had purchased for Ryan on the computer, the kids had just enough daylight left to play with the neighbor boy, Jack. At one point, Jack's mother called to ask if it was okay that the children were playing in her yard...that Jack had the hose out... NononoNO! No hose! Had them all come back to my yard to play. They played around the base of one of the maples, dragging dead grass clippings from the berm and some broad leaves from weeds...and sticks from the yard and bark from the tree...to make homes for Jack's dragons. (He already has toys from the movie.) At dark, Jack had to go on errands with his mother, so the kids came in. Ryan played Spore on my computer, and Robin played in her room, dressing little teddy bears in doll clothes. (She made a bride and groom and asked me if I could tell which of the seven sacraments they were about to receive.) We didn't horse around much...and they didn't resist...but it was seriously 10:30 before everyone (including me) got to bed. Busy day! 'Tis the one reason why I like to get the kids on Fridays. If they come on Saturday, we don't have as much time to get through the adjustment things...

Saturday:
Robin would have slept later, but Ryan was up at 7:30 and woke her up. After breakfast and a little TV, Ry started asking (about every 15 minutes) if he could go see if Jack was up. I made him wait until 10:00. Jack was up! Jack was dressed! They played in and out...mostly out. Jack's sister Grace is kind of the odd man in the company. She is younger than the rest, so while the bigger kids play outside, Grace plays by herself with their toys in my house! When I suggest that she should go outside to play with the rest of them, she tells me she doesn't want to...but usually gives up in boredom, at some point.

At one point, Jack's mother called to say she had to run some errands and really needed Jack to be with her, but that they would be back in "about an hour" to continue playing. We used the break to have our walking taco lunch. (The kids LOVE that. Robin eats the daylights out of it--Fritos with taco meat, refried beans, cheese, lettuce, and sour cream. Ryan won't eat the lettuce, but does well with the rest.) At lunch, we also made a list of the things we wanted to accomplish the rest of the day. We actually got all of them done!

After lunch, Jack still wasn't back, so we decided (Ryan, reluctantly) to run OUR errand. I had told Robin that since I had bought the Spore game for Ryan, I would buy her something for $30, but she needed to be thinking about what she wanted so we wouldn't have to be chasing all over to find something. We also needed candy bars for the s'mores we were going to have later... She decided she wanted to go to Target because she wanted a Zhu-Zhu Pet. I told her that the only place I'd seen them locally was at Walgreen's, so we went there, instead. The ONLY Zhu-Zhu Pet deal that they had left was one pet with the first part of the habitat dealie. $30. We bought the very last one...and got our candy bars...then went home. Wonder of wonders! Jack's car pulled into their drive right behind us in ours. Yay! Back outside to play. (I kept a pretty close eye on Ryan to keep him from running or doing other dumb stuff in his cast. They all actually played pretty nicely together...back under the maple on their knees.)

Robin is studying rocks in school. I told her I could send her back with some nice ones to show her class...so we went to the patio to select some. She picked out the ones that she wanted, and we talked about them. Some she could actually identify herself. That's my girl!

Meanwhile, I had emailed friend "Big" Ryan about problems with the living room computer's disk drives. He stopped by, cleaned out the computer, removed the drives, put one back in, etc. In the meantime, he decided to install Spore on the living room computer...which mean he had to uninstall it from mine. That took awhile because he finally figured out my daughter had some controls on the one in the living room. He finally got it installed but kept getting messages that wouldn't let it work. (One was the "another application of the game is still running" deal. I told him we had solved that by rebooting my computer...but it didn't seem to work on the living room one.) Finally, he had to leave. Thus, I had no Spore game on my computer, and the one on the kids' computer wouldn't work. *Sigh* He took the second ailing disk drive with him to replace it with another from his spares at home. Will have to figure out the problem with that before the children visit again.

At 5:30, Grandma Judy and Grandpa Phil came over for corned "beeth". Robin pulled Judy into the bathroom to tell her about the two envelopes that she had put underneath Phil's plate at the table. At dinner, she told him to look under his plate. Surprise! Both children explained to him about the money and how they had all (including stepsister Wednesday) agreed that he should get it to help feed the homeless through his church mission. He was touched and impressed. I could see the proud-grandparent wheels begin to grind in his head about how to get the most public impact from the gift. Should the children put the envelopes in the collection plate? No...maybe he should first show them to Pastor Ted (who was gone this weekend). In any case, I could tell that Phil wanted EVERYONE to know what his grandchildren had done. Heh heh.
We all explained to the children how proud we are to have them in church with us on Sundays when they come to visit. We like showing them off!

We then retired to the patio to get a fire going in the chimenea for s'mores. I made Phil the Keeper of the Flame. We sat and talked while the kids did the marshmallow roasting, got sticky, and enjoyed the daylights out of the experience. (It was a cool evening. We put our jackets on. The fire was warm and nice.) Several charcoal marshmallows and mess s'mores later, we let the fire die down and went back into the house. Judy and Phil left just at dark.

Inside, Ry wanted to play Spore...but I had to tell him that it wouldn't work, so I put him on the Webkinz site. He was okay with that for awhile, then he and Robin played TOGETHER in her bedroom, quietly and nicely, for at least an hour! I had to keep checking on them because they were being too good! Finally plunked Robin in the bathtub and got Ryan to bed...or rather, he put himself in bed, fully clothed. (I couldn't tell because he was so far up there in his loft bed...and I know he had his DS with him...but I let him have it his way. He never did get in his pajamas...)

Robin has a little tradition that was started long ago. When she gets out of the bathtub and everyone else is in bed, she gets into her bathrobe, sits on the couch, and wants a bagel with cream cheese for her bedtime snack. It's like "our" thing. Maybe she thinks she is getting away with something, so that makes it special...but I have come to expect it. She asks for it every time...sometimes saying, "You know what I'm going to say..." So she got her bagel and cream cheese, then was ready to settle. Before we both went down for the night, I sat next to her and told her how proud and touched we all were at the unselfish thing they (the children) had done in giving their money to a cause that would help people who didn't have as much as they have. She smiled and gave me a big hug and kiss. I think she fell asleep happy in the knowledge that she/they had done well.

Sunday:
Since we go to the early service at church, we have to be up early. Robin got up well. Ryan fussed. He didn't want to go to church! He complained, "Every time we come here, you make us go to church." Ryan is under the impression that when he comes to Grandma's, there should be freedom from rules and chores. Apparently church also comes under that. I simply told him, "That's what we do here now. We go to church." (I have some trouble with Robin with the rules and chores thing, too. Had to ask her several times to remove her mess from the living room...which she never fully did. They DO, however, pick things up when told by Kendra! I don't fight it much...) We got to church just as the choir was lined up for their processional. Phil spied Ryan's grumpy face and deduced that he wasn't a happy camper, but the little guy came around just fine. They went to the altar for the Children's Message, then retired for Children's Church. They made paper bag car trash bags for Earth Day. After church, I moved them to the Sunday School room, then went to my own Sunday School class. (The children have their own name tags at SS now, even though they are only monthly visitors. And they always seem happily engaged when I pick them up. Even Ryan!)

After church, we came home, had a snack, changed clothes, and got things together to go to the Heffelman's for lunch and the "How to Train Your Dragon" movie at The Rave. I had thought Nathan and Kendra might be there to pick the kids up when we got back from the movie so had things in the car.

We had a nice lunch. After that, Ryan played Uncle Wiggily with Grandma Judy while Robin happily played outside all by herself. Then it was time to go to the movie. Judy, Robin, Ryan, and I went. They enjoyed that. Lots and lots of dragons in 3-D! We ate a big tub of popcorn, had drinks, and sneaked in some candy in my purse. (Prices are outrageous, you know!) When we got back to Judy and Phil's, Nathan and Kendra weren't there yet, so I just brought the children back home and changed them into their Muncie clothes and let them go out to play. Jack again! We were back about 4:00...and Nathan didn't come until about 5:30, so they had bonus time to play. Robin especially like that. "We're lucky because we got more time to play!" I think everyone went home tired and somewhat dirty...but happy.

I always love having my grandbabies here. Before the weather improved, it was a challenge to keep them busy and un-bored inside. This trip, I had to anticipate Ryan's restrictions with his broken wing...things to keep him happy without physical activity; hence the movie and the computer game. Other than that, even with the cooler temperatures this weekend, we had lots of sunshine and outdoor play (with supervision). The children never had a chance to be bored, and neither did Grandma! Yes, there is extra expense and mess, but it is worth it to me! I can take my time cleaning up after they leave. Having a clean house is highly overrated!

Oh! Here's a funny:
After the water heater fiasco of last weekend, the defunct heater was taken outside and put next to my bedroom window in the front of the house. My neighbor was going to give it to one of his friends to take for scrap metal, saving me a $20 haul to the dump. He only asked if I could help him lift it onto his truck this weekend.
When I got back from Muncie on Friday, I noticed that the heater was gone. I thought, "Bless his heart, Fred lifted that thing all by himself!" I was going to write him an email about it on Saturday when I received an email from him, instead: "Where is your water heater? I was going to take it, but guess you found someone else to take it, instead...which is good because then I didn't have to mess with it." Uh...huh???? SOMEONE took my old water heater! Had to have had a truck... Were I not so grateful to have it gone, it would kind of scare me!

So much for the weekend.