Grands and Their Retreat at Papa's and Gran's

Enjoying an ice cream cone on the patio

When the Grands arrived for their retreat at our house, they were excited for a sleep over! They also put their order in for lunch. Miss K chose green salad. They prefer their salad ingredients to be separate and they prefer to serve themselves. I was not only surprised at how much salad they ate; but that they chose to eat it three times as a main dish! They like lettuce, peppers, carrots, cucumbers and jicama the best.

Purple basil ice cream

We baked cookies, blueberry muffins, sourdough pancakes and sourdough bread either on the day it was overcast or after breakfast; but, it was too hot to bake fruit cobbler.  Corn on the cob is a favorite vegetable and a couple evenings we had ice cream cones for dessert. Miss K added some purple basil to her cone which made it "delicious!" They also pretended the ice cream cones were microphones and serenaded us with a live musical show complete with dance moves. What a hoot! It was entertainment at its best because the music was original!

We had lots of activities lined up because the grands like to be busy! Our place is perfect for kid play. There are trees to climb and hide behind. There is a barn that can house pretend chickens, horses and cows. There is plenty of flat space for running games. The whole property is fenced and not near a street!

The rules for playing outside are few:
--Tell Papa or Gran that you are going to go outside
--Wear shoes
--Take Bailey (the dog)
--If called, come fast

Papa is being directed to make
a stepping stone

It took until Saturday before they each were following the outside rules. One had a tough time with coming when called and wearing shoes; they both thought that one of us needed to be outside with them.They both were great about telling us that they were headed outside.

We went to the library; we played in two parks and we gave Bailey a bath! We were in bed by 8:30 each evening and asleep soon after reading some stories. We read a really good chapter book too! Most mornings, they were up between five and six. I'm fortunate that I am an early riser!

The stepping stones; K's is second from the left; J's is the first on the left.

Papa helped the Grands make some stepping stones. There were lots of "gems" to create whatever they liked. Papa did a lot of helping; but, they were able to choose the design and materials to make there own creation. They took their creations home so they would have a memory of their retreat with us. Then they chose where our three stones should be placed. Daughter "A" purchased these for me at Christmas so it was fun to get these to the useable stage!

J's sleeping space

One of my favorite photos of the weekend was one of Miss J's sleeping spaces. (She had a different place to sleep every night although after a couple of hours, she snuggled in next to me!) Note the books, alarm clock and penguin pillow that she and her sister stitched earlier in the year.

K is so much like her mama and J is so much like her auntie that at times it was like we were watching our girls again.  Their parents are raising two awesome daughters. (Yes, I know that I'm biased!) We may do this again next year.