Fourth and Beyond, Part II

I figured Meg and family would stay until Sunday, but she informed me on Friday that they would be leaving on Saturday because they had left a messy house.  (Well, duh....I leave a messy house every time I go anywhere!)  Anyway, we soon arranged that the children would stay here for a grandparent visit. I hadn't planned for it but wasn't surprised.  There had been hints....

So, after Megan and Denis left, the children were mine, all mine!  God bless Grandma Judy--she cleared her schedule to help me entertain the kids.  I would rate the visit as a "B".  (It was an "A" for me, but I'm sure there were bored times for the children.)

On Sunday, Grandpa Phil treated us all to a Chinese buffet after church, then Ryan went to play with his friend from the old days while Robin went for some "girl time" with Grandma Judy. 

Monday, Judy and I took the kids to the  movies to see Monsters University.  Thereafter, I took the kids to Hummel Park to play, then to Dairy Queen for a treat that we ate at Friendship Gardens.

Tuesday, Judy and I took the kids to Splash Island.  SI is the outdoor pool at Plainfield's Rec Center--just a fun place for kids, with a whirlpool, an inner-tube "leisure river", slides, diving boards, and lots of ways to have fun and get wet.  In the evening, I took the kids to Swinford Park to play a bit. 

Wednesday, I had a problem with the condensate pump for my AC.  It was leaking all over the floor/carpet, so we needed to stay home.  Interestingly, the children managed to self-entertain because they needed to!

Thursday, I had arranged for Ryan's buddy's family to meet us at Splash Island, but had decided that I probably needed to stay home to do laundry and mop up the mess after the condensate pump thing.  God bless Grandma Judy....she stuck with the kids while I did my thing.  (To Ryan's disappointment, his buddy...who is 13 and doesn't know how to swim...would not even go in the water.  That's a different post!  The boy's sister, however, would play.)  After SI, I met them--my family--at Steak 'n Shake.  We ordered from the $4 menu and something about buy one/get one free milk shakes....   (Just by way of information, S 'n S could sell more milk shakes if they didn't keep the place so blasted cold!!)

After Steak 'n Shake, I drove the kids to a new store in town:  Five Below.  Had never been there, but the granddaughter of my friend Ryan works there, and he said it was a great store for kids.  Well!  The instant we walked in, Robin declared that it was a fantastic store.  Everything in the place is priced $5 or below.  The merchandise is trendy and trinkety, but not total junk.  I gave the kids $10 apiece to spend. They were happily in the midst of that when Ry decided he had to go to the bathroom..and when we connected with Robin, she said she did, too.  Ugh!  We put stuff back on the shelves and departed for a gas station to use the potty, then went back to the store to pick up where we left off.  While later, we emerged with our treasures.  And when we got home, the kids really got into playing World of Warcraft on their computers.  By this time, I was really pooped.  I sent them off the bed with no real expectation that they would actually do that...

Friday, I had to ride herd on the kids to get everything packed.  Clean clothes in the suitcases.  Dirty clothes in the garbage bag.  Electronics in the pink bag.  Everything else where it belongs.  We left about 11:45 AM for Merrillville, IN, to meet up with their mother for the weekend kid trade.  We did well with that, considering the distances.  Meg got to the meeting place about a minute before we did!
The trip back was a lot longer because there was no on in the car to talk to.  :(

You know, I didn't have too many "special" moments with the kids, but for me, every moment with them is special.  (Not so sure about them.)  But I treasure the little things.  Robin has decided that I should live with her when I get too old to live alone, so she can take care of me.  Ryan has decided that he'd like to live here again.  I love them both for that.  All I want out of life is for them to know how very much I love them.  If they haven't figured that out by now, I have failed!!

I will go up for Robin's birthday in early August and will most likely have them here again in mid-August while Meg and Denis attend a Greek wedding for Thomas--pronounced toe-MAS--who was Denis's first friend in the US, even though they both were foreign students.  In the meantime, I do what I can to still be part of their lives.  I sure do love my grandbabies!