The Colors are in Order!

My grandson, whether on purpose or by chance, put the Playdoh in the container in the proper order! The purple is upside down, but that's nit-picking. We thought it was cool, but then, we're easy to impress when it comes to the babies!

It's Thursday

Unicorn Marshmallows

They don't look much like unicorns to me, but I don't think kids will care!

Somebody is Mighty Proud!

Of the castle he built!

An Afternoon at the Park

Thing 1 and I took all the babies to the park Saturday afternoon ... and they a blast!

The older two headed straight for the slide while Thing 1 put her little guy in the baby swing.

There were only two swings at this particular playground, so we had to improvise to get all three on the swings at the same time. Luckily, my youngest grandbaby didn't take up much of the seat in the baby swing!

My oldest grandbaby is was able to swing by himself, but he wanted a turn with his cousin in the baby swing.

I took a short walk with the older two, stopping along the way to watch some big kids play disc golf, then we headed back to the playground for a drink and a snack.

After being cooped up all winter, these little ones were ready to run and play ... and they did! They had so much fun, but I think my daughter and I enjoyed it even more than the babies! Seeing their smiles and hearing their giggles fill my heart to overflowing.

Well, Hello Officer!

Ivy

I took a couple of days off to get some work done in my yard. For once, it was warm and it hadn't rained in about a week. I didn't work too terribly hard, but I got a few things crossed off my list ... the things that mattered the most ... cutting the grass and getting the rest of the ivy off of the trees.

It's hard to see the ivy growing on the trees in this picture, but there were about 15 trees with ivy. Eight or nine had really, really thick vines growing on them. The others had smaller vines.

In case you don't know how thick ivy vines can get, here's a sample. The yellow arrows show the ivy cut ... the one hanging next to the tree is ivy ... not a tree growing nearby.

Here's a tree with the ivy removed. I'm not concerned about getting the entire vine off the tree (as if I could), my goal was to kill it's food source at the ground.

It wasn't without injury, but the cuts are superficial. My leg brushed up against the saw (a tree saw, not a chainsaw). It didn't hurt, it's just going to mess up my tan when they heal!

It takes a few months for the ivy to die, so it will be fall, when the leaves are gone, before I can be sure I've gotten it all ... and I'll have to pull off new vines that try to grow up throughout the year, but I think I've got a handle on the ivy ... finally! When I moved here, every tree in the woods had ivy, so even though it doesn't look all that impressive, I've spent many an hour cutting down ivy and checking for ticks!

Snow? REALLY???

 

The moisture on my windshield is from SNOW. Yesterday! In April!!!! It snowed very lightly and for a very short time, but still ... snow in April?!!

I have a sister in Minnesota (who is there on purpose!), where they had blizzard/white-out conditions over the weekend, so I'll get no sympathy from her, but I do NOT not in Minnesota (on purpose!). I'm not supposed to see snow in April, regardless of how insignificant!

Laryngitis

After working in my yard Friday, I went to my friend's house. The plan was to take a walk, but it looked like it was going to rain, so we just hung out and watched a movie. I was fine when I got there, but as the day wore on, my voice started cracking. By the time I got home, I couldn't talk above a whisper.

I don't have a sore throat, and I'm not coughing, so I'm not completely sure what happened. I did work on a computer for a co-worker who had laryngitis. She said she wasn't contagious, but I wiped down her keyboard and mouse with disinfectant wipes (that supposedly kill 99% of all germs) ... just in case. Also, I had a dental appointment last Wednesday and was given nitric oxide. I'm not sure if it was the nitric oxide or if the 1% of germs the disinfectant wipes don't kill was the one that got me. Regardless, I couldn't talk above a whisper Friday evening through Sunday afternoon. I'm still talking pretty soft, but at least people don't have to lip-read when I talk to them anymore!

Anyway ... Saturday afternoon I ran errands. If I had to ask someone at the store for help, I had to whisper my question, and I discovered a strange fact ... when you whisper a question to someone, even prefacing it with the fact that you can barely talk, they whisper the answer back! The following is a typical conversation from every store I visited:

Me (holding my hand to my throat, I whispered): "I can barely talk. Where are the batteries?"
Home Depot Guy (whispers): "There's a battery kiosk just past the self-checkout stations."

The fact that everyone whispered back was funny enough that I didn't even care if I couldn't talk! If you're ever bored and need a little "funny" in your day, try whispering to a salesperson and see if they whisper back!

No One Can Resist Mr. Pillow

When I lay my grandbabies down for a nap, I lay down with them. Sometimes I stay and take a nap and sometimes I wait until I know they are asleep before gently getting up and tip-toeing out. There are times that one of them will wake up, so I'll take Mr. Pillow and put him close the the one still sleeping. There's weight beside them and it smells like me ... so they think Grandma is still there. I did that with my own kids, too. It always worked like a charm!

Last weekend, Sweet Pea was still zonked out when her brother woke up, fully charged. I put Mr. Pillow beside her and carried her brother to freedom. When I went to check on her, she had her arm around Mr. Pillow ...

 

A couple of years back, when my grandson was in the hospital in Indianapolis, I stayed to help his mom and give her a break. I don't think she would have left the room without knowing someone was there with her little baby! One afternoon he was so tired and really fighting sleep, so I put Mr. Pillow beside him. It wasn't long before he fell asleep. I looked over a minute later, and he'd thrown his tiny arm over Mr. Pillow. (I know you're not supposed to put anything in with an infant when they are sleeping, but I was right beside him the whole time ... he was never in any danger.)

 

There are a few things that all three of my kids have told me they want when I die, but the big two are my Bible and Mr. Pillow!

The Coveted Flip Phone

Growing up, the bottom four kids in our family (all girls) were born within five years of each other, so when birthdays came around, my mom made sure we all got gifts. Sometimes we all got the same thing, sometimes we got something different, but the point was that no one was left out and/or jealous. Once we were all old enough to understand the concept of birthdays and birthday presents, only the birthday girl got a gift.

I continued the tradition with my kids (and now grandkids), and I make sure I have gifts for all of the siblings when attending birthday parties for other children with brothers/sisters close in age.

Last year, when my oldest grandson turned two, I bought him a tricycle. For his little sister, I bought a flip phone (that makes noise). It came with a key fob, that also makes noise. She was only 15 months old, so I didn't have to match the amount I spent, just the "wow factor" ... and for a 15 month old, a phone and key fob that make noise is pretty "wow"!

She loved the phone ... but so did her brother. Nevermind the fact that they have three other phones and an "ipad", that all make noise, that silly flip phone became the toy they both coveted and fought over.

 

One Saturday Thing 1, (tired of listening to them fight and cry over the cheapest toy they own!) said she had looked for another one, but couldn't find any. We flipped over the phone and looked for any information that would lead us to another one. A minute later, she said "I found it on Amazon. It will be here Monday!" True to their word, it was delivered on Monday. 

The next Saturday, I handed both babies their own flip phone ... and they were elated! My grandson put his on the table next to him so that he could play with his newfound love ... Playdoh.

His sister saw the phone, relatively unguarded, and snapped it up. As happy as one phone made her, two phones gave her twice the delight!! However, even though he wasn't playing with it, he wanted it back.

I made her give him his phone back. She did ... but she did her best to let me know it was probably the worst thing that had ever happened to her in her whole life ... then hopped into her pink Cozy Coupe and headed off to run errands.

At some point, my youngest grandson is going be mobile ... and able to steal toys from his cousins ... so I should probably get on Amazon and order another flip phone ... for the three of them to fight over!

Bookmobile Day

As a child, I remember the bookmobile coming down the street in the summer. They didn't come by often, but I was always as happy as when the ice cream truck came by.

(Okay, that's a big, fat lie. I love books and all ... but they're not ice cream!)

Anyway ... I don't know why I would get so excited about the bookmobile. My mom took us kids to the library several times a week. I loved reading and would always check out as many books as I could carry. My mom checked out almost as many as I did, but I was a child, and my books weren't nearly as thick as hers. I asked why she always checked out so many big books. She said, "If I didn't have a book to read, I'd be sitting on the kitchen floor reading the back of soup cans."

I searched for a picture of a bookmobile from our local library, and I didn't find one. Bookmobiles must be a thing of the past, at least around here. How sad. I did find a picture of a really old bookmobile, which, in my humble opinion, is a LOT cooler than the bookmobiles of my youth.

And .... (if you ever get bored enough) ...here's a template to make one of your own. It's blank, so you could make it a UPS or FedEx truck if you wanted!

The Perspective of Age

Whenever we watch "Moana", when the grandmother comes back (after she's died) to give a pep talk to Moana, my little grandson always points to the screen and says, "Mamaw Jackie!".

So ... much to my chagrin ... this is what my grandson sees when he looks at me ...

Apparently, when you're two, all "old people" look alike!

Cool Concept, But ...

My grandbabies would LOVE this, but I'm not sure how practical it is. It removes a great deal of storage space, and ...

If the items circled below are the access to the inside of the tank and the filter, they could not have chosen a more inconvenient placement for them.

Wish I Had a "4"

I saw this on Facebook and thought it was funny. I used several different phone numbers ... my childhood phone number, a home phone number from my pre-cell days, my current cell number, and my work number. All but one number had duplicates in the last three digits, so I guess I need a double dose of those!

The results, in random order, are:

Sex and two Liquor
Liquor and two Sugar Daddy
Sleep and two Love
Music, Love, Sugar Daddy

Luckily, I didn't have a "7" in any of my numbers, because I definitely don't need a stripper ... but I'm really wishing I had a "4" in one of them.

Flowering Trees

I've noticed these trees every spring for years, but "never had the time" to stop and take a photo. By "never had the time", what I really mean is that I always thought "I'll take one the next time". Which, of course, turned into "Oh, no! The flowers on the trees are gone and I never got a picture!"

So this year, I made sure to get a photo. It's not really all that extraordinary ... it's just a line of flowering trees, but it’s unique ... and pretty. And after a long, cold, colorless winter, these trees my heart smiles every time I see them.

Periwinkle

Around my house and in my woods, there are vines growing everywhere, mainly ivy, which I've been doing my best to dig up and kill, but I also have another vine that's not nearly so intrusive. This spring I noticed little purple flowers on it, and of course, I used my amazing flower app to find out what it is. It's Periwinkle. This particular vine doesn't bother me like the ivy does ... it doesn't trip you when you walk through it like ivy, it doesn't climb and kill trees, and it doesn't attempt to devour everything in it's path ... so I mostly leave the Periwinkle alone.

I once loved ivy ... I even planted it at my old house! But now, Ivy is my kudzu ... and I will destroy it at all costs. Ivy could learn a thing or two from sweet, simple Periwinkle.

Mulan Magnolia

My neighbor has a beautiful flowering tree that blooms before almost any other tree. I took a couple pictures of it the other day and looked it up ... because there's an app for that! Turns out it's a Mulan Magnolia. It's not evergreen like some Magnolia's, but those amazing early flowers make up for it being naked all winter.

Easter Bubbles With My Babies