This & That...Happy Birthday, Matt!

Last Friday, the day before the big reunion, our grandson Matthew had his second birthday. We celebrated at our favorite Chinese restaurant.

Matt was sleepy and a wee bit bemused that all the attention was focused on him.

Sister Lauren got everyone going by telling us what we should do.

Cousin Kaitlyn kept things peaceful and on an even keel.

Cousin Gaige thoroughly enjoyed the many buffet offerings.

Cousin Nathan provided the evening's entertainment.

Finally, it was time to get down to business!

There was even singing by a lovely duo.

The very exciting finale!

Lauren was giving more help than was actually needed very helpful.

Happy Birthday, dear Matthew! Happy Birthday to you!

Randomness...

too small for a post, too good to pass up.

Been braiding some garlic.

Picking blackberries and making pies and cobblers.

Little Feather has decided the best place to lay her eggs is on a chair in my 3-season room. I leave Lucy the dog out there with the door slightly propped open when I'm away for more than a few hours, and twice I've come home and found an egg lying in the chair.

Well, it's one I don't have to bring in from the coop, I guess.

New wardrobe

So, my granddaughter Kaitlyn has decided I need a new wardrobe. She must think that I shouldn't be wearing shorts and tank tops at my advanced age. So the other day she cut pictures from an advertisement in the Sunday newspaper's coupon insert. This is how she would like me to dress from now on.

 

See, there's a different one for every day of the week! Oh, darn! She cut off the important ordering information. Maybe they'll run this one again in Sunday's paper! I can only hope.

Goodwill keeps me warm

Kaitlyn and I were killing time yesterday, so we went to the Goodwill thrift shop. I like to look for unusual dishes and table linens. I found this sweet little crocheted afghan made with wool thread. It is sooo soft and warm and it isn't too large. It's just big enough to throw over me while I watch television.

The person who made it must have used a very small crochet needle. It has really fine stitches. I put it next to one I made a long time ago. The stitches on mine look huge next to this one. It makes me want to go out and buy some wool thread and make one myself, but the old wrists won't let me. The repetitive motion kills me.

Kaitlyn turned three on Wednesday! She still wants to say she's two. I guess it will take a week or so to realize she's a big three-year-old girl. Her party was low-key with it being in the middle of the week. She was fine with that. She doesn't like being the center of attention. I can't believe how much older she looks in these pictures. She's growing up.

Cute babes

A few pictures of the cutie-pies who were visiting this weekend.

Sleeping bags are for dumb people

Aimee asked if the kids could spend the night on Tuesday. This a little rundown of how the evening went.

4:00 p.m. Picked up Gaige, Nathan and Kaitlyn.
4:03 p.m. Yelled at said boys who immediately started bickering in the rear seat.
4:15 p.m. Arrive at Bear Swamp location.
4:16 p.m. Yell at Nathan for letting the dog into the backyard where the chickens are running around.

For about an hour, they play outside peacefully. Of course, I forgot to put Off on Kaitlyn, so she gets 4 huge mosquito bites on her leg.

5:30 p.m. David calls to say he's coming home early because he is feeling sick from a cold. Oh great, no help from that quarter! At least when he's sick he doesn't require a lot of attention. Just kind of crawls into his den and disappears until he feels better.

The rest of the evening goes fairly well. We have bathtime, we have storytime, we eat ice cream and brush teeth. Here comes the fun part--bedtime!

9:30 p.m. While the children are bathing, I put the boys' sleeping bags on the floor of the front guest room. Normally, they sleep in the bed, but my sister-in-law and her son are visiting this weekend and I had already put clean sheets on the beds and didn't want to go through another change. Silly me to think that a six-and-a-half-year-old would think it was cool to sleep on the floor! No, no, no! Nathan was fine with it and climbed right in. On the other hand, Gaige defiantly crossed his arms and glared at me with an evil look in his eye and declared, "Sleeping on the floor is for dumb people!"

No amount of reasoning, explaining that this is what kids do when they have a sleepover, threatening, would change his mind. He was adamant that he was not sleeping on the floor. Of course, the whole time this is going on, David is blissfully snoring away in his drugged slumber, while I am sweating and frustrated that a six-year-old is winning the battle of the wills.

10:30 p.m. I finally give it up as a lost cause and let them sleep on the bed on top of the quilt. I suppose, if you look at it in a skewed sort of way, it was a compromise.

11:00 p.m. I take a shower in the guest bath, because there's no way I can go to sleep caked in sweat from 10 rounds with a six-year-old.

12:00 midnight. I fall asleep on the sofa, exhausted.

6:30 a.m. Kaitlyn wakes up. The coffee isn't even ready yet. Here we go again!