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!