Her first Hallowe'en

Our little pumpkin showed up at our door.

Hope your Hallowe'en brought you as much joy as ours did.

She's arrived!

Our newest grandchild was born last night. Our youngest son and his wife are the proud parents of a beautiful little girl. She surprised us all - arriving 5 weeks earlier than expected but is healthy and strong. At 4 lb. 10 oz. she is tiny with beautiful skin and dark wavy hair.

We are thrilled!! and grateful to God for her safe arrival. R & A we wish you both much joy in this new season of life.

What is there to do at Papa and Nana's?

It's been a year since our grandboys have visited from
Saskatchewan so when they arrived they needed to check everything out.

There were dandelions to pick and present to Nana.

The hot tub is a huge attraction so it's on each day's agenda.

Papa has to measure each boy against the kitchen door post to see how much they've grown since their last vist. (Evan grew 3 inches and Kyle a full 4 inches!!)

We pulled out the super scrabble and E proved his expertise by pulling off a Scrabble (using all 7 letters on his tray at once) on his first turn!

They boys went exploring in the crawl space and found the trumpets and blew us an energetic tune.

Of course the creek always holds its attraction - a bit scary for Nana but she gave in and found fishing rods, so they dug for worms and went fishing and then their Mom gave a hand to span the creek with a board so they could dangle their feet in the cold cold water.

Since then they've played Lego, read voraciously, gone bowling, rode their bikes, took the dirtbike for a spin, decorated cupcakes, watched the birds (calling PopPop to show him one we hadn't seen yet) cheered on the hockey game, went for ice cream, checked out the used bookstore and shared their favourite stories with Nana.

They've also been a great help - setting the table and clearing their dishes after the meal, making their beds, tidying up the toys and helping Nana cook.

On his first morning here, 9 year old Evan cooked breakfast for us - scrambled egg and bacon wraps.

And that was only the first couple of days!

Then the Seattle cousins arrived and the excitement has risen to a fevered pitch.

More on that next time.

Friday with the Grandkids

This past Friday Harv and I headed out to Seattle to spend some time with our grandkids. Grandboy B had a birthday this month that still needed some celebration time plus Grandma had been kids clothes shopping lately so we drove down laden with gifts and cookies.

We visited with our DIL and the two oldest while grandboy B finished his nap. Grandboy N and Princess E kept asking their mom when she would go shopping so they could visit with PopPop and Nana. Too funny! When Grandboy B woke up he opend up his gifts ( 3 Duck books by Jez Alborough and a pair of Cheeky monkey pyjamas)

Daddy came home from work early so we had some fun in the yard with the neighbours...Head first down the slide is so much fun!

A little soccer


some vigorous red wagon pushing

And more than a little hanging around upside down.

....before heading out to "Five Guys Burgers and Fries" for supper.

After supper we had enough time to spend a half hour at a local playground before it was time to go home.

Granboy N loved the zip line

Walking the balancing wall looked like fun when Princess E did it so Grandboy B had to try it too. The first time he had a bit of help from Nana.

Mama and Daddy showed us that playgrounds are for grown ups too!

On his own now!

And once more down the slide.

Then it was home to stories and pj's and bedtime.

Look what came in the mail!

I saw Marg's recipe for creamed corn on the Mennonite Girls Can Cook blog yesterday and decided to make some for Harv who loved creamed corn. So this is what I was doing this morningWhile this was cooking in the oven I went to the post office to pick up our mail.
There was an envelope with a Saskatchewan return address and this is what I found inside.





Grandson E drew this unique perspective of a house.

This spaceship is exploring new worlds.

And this ocean is teeming with a variety of colourful fish.
(and the artist, Grandson K can identify each species)

These pictures will join our art collection in the hall.Needless to say it is one of the most precious collections in our home.

A Day with the grandkids

I spent 2 days and nights in Seattle this week visiting our grandkids. Harv was in Ontario on a sales call for the week so when I was invited to a "Grandparents Day" at granddaughter E's preschool I gladly packed up and drove down. I went planning to spend some one on one time with each of the 3 grandkids and I'm so glad I did.
Unfortunately I forgot my camera at home so I have to use these pictures from my files instead.

E's teacher had a few activities for the grandparents to participate in and then we got to watch as Mrs. S. went through her lessons with the children. The topic for the day was road signs and community helpers. She showed the children all the road signs and had the kids say what they meant and then went on to talk about community helpers. She held up pictures of a doctor, a dentist, a policeman, fire fighter, teacher etc. and they talked about how they all helped the community. Then she went around the circle and asked each child what they wanted to be when they grew up.
"A Firefighter", piped up one little girl, "
a policeman", said another and so it went around the circle.
Then she asked E what she wanted to be when she grew up. "A Princess" she stated, very matter of factly.
After preschool was over she and I went for lunch. We talked about what they'd done in school and I thought I 'd ask her again what she wanted to be when she grew up. the answer was the same "A Princess!"
"So," I said, "What do you have to do to become a princess?"

"Grow your hair long." She sounded surprised that I would have to ask.

"What does a princess do?", I asked

"Comb her hair."

"Does she do anything else?"

"Brush her teeth."

"Does she help anyone or do anything else?"

"She is nice to knights!"

Now that is a princess who knows her job!

After I took her home, it was Granboy N.'s time to spend with Nana. We went to Baskin and Robbins where he had a chocolate cone and I had peanut butter cup ice cream. After that we drove down to Edmonds Marina Park where N and I counted 25 starfish, mostly bright orange ones and blue ones and 10 crabs plus a Blue Heron and numerous sea birds of different varieties. Fortunately for us a kind man let us into the locked gate leading down to the marina itself and we were able to look at all the boats moored there, peering into windows and sharing our favourites. We also walked along the beach until Nana got cold.

Later I spent some fun time with Baby B. ( almost 1 1/2 now) reading and playing cars. With his shy smile, his wonderful conversation (unfortunately not yet interpretable!) and his infectious giggle, he is a delight to this Nana's heart.

His sweet wave when it was time to say goodbye, is enough to melt my heart into a puddle.

I was also able to attend a Bible class with our son and his wife at church in the evening and I was encouraged again by the excellent Bible teaching they are receiving and their dedication to walking God's path for them. It was a wonderful time with them all and I'll do it again.

Celebrating - Spring, Birthdays, Family

It was a day of celebrating with 4 generations of family. Our oldest son and his family came up from Seattle and joined our youngest son and his wife, my sister and my Dad for a great day. There were so many wonderful pictures taken that I've had a hard time choosing which ones to include. I'll start with this picture of Baby B. Everyone took their turn holding him and he delighted us all with his smiles.

We decorated a cake and cupcakes, celebrated Birthdays, read stories, played in the hot tub and shared a great meal together.

We celebrated the March birthdays with a special focus on our Grand princess,
Before dinner, we took a walk through the Cheam Wetlands - This regional park is just a few miles from our place and is great place to watch swans, geese and ducks and a wide variety of other birds. We were also on the lookout for signs of Spring on this the first day of the season. We are all pictures takers in this family and our two sons in particular, have SLR cameras and have an eye for what makes a great photo.It was fun to watch the different generations enjoy each other's company. My Dad loved being with his great grandchildren and we were so happy he spent the day with us.
The weather forecast had been for a cloudy day with possible showers but as you can see we basked in the sun and relative warmth and enjoyed every minute of it with gratitude. We missed our daughter and her family from Sask. but were grateful that those that could come did. What a great way to welcome Spring!

Conversation with Grandboy N

We called on Christmas morning to wish our son and his family in Seattle a Merry Christmas. Grandboy N answered the phone with a hearty "Merry Christmas".
After the usual Christmas morning conversation about activities and gifts received, I asked him if they were going to their uncle's for Turkey.
"Nana, don't be a silly goose!" he said.
"What do you mean? How am I a silly goose?" I responded.
You're silly Nana, that's not Christmas food! That's Thanksgiving food!"(now that is my American Grandson speaking!)
"So what is Christmas food ?" I replied. "what are you going to eat at Uncle Curt's?"
He hesitated a minute and then said," Um.... well.. we're going to have some food: some salad, and some meat...."
"What kind of meat?"
"Um, pig bones I think."

I 'm sure he had a good Christmas dinner whatever it was he had!

Visit Vignettes

We had a lovely time visiting the kids and grandkids.

They live in a small town and enjoy all the benefits of a prairie lifestyle.

The library is in the old railway station with a section of track out behind it.

Main street is wide ( there are no mountains limiting space here)

with a dozen or so businesses and services.

The rink is closeby and very well used. Both my son in law and my daughter

are on hockey teams (there are 4 mens teams in this small town!) and

the boys are in skating lessons twice a week.

Grandson E can bike to school where he is in Grade 1. The school is K-12 and every child in town attends it. He's got a great teacher and I got to see his classroom and his schoolwork.

The town also has a seniors home as well as a home and workshop for the developmentally challenged where we attended their annual Christmas Craft Fair. I wish I'd brought my camera as the craft items made there are amazing. There were handmade quilts and table linens in gorgeous colours and patterns, well built, distressed, country syle furniture, angels and snowmen to adorn your home, stitched pictures for the wall and lots of Christmas ornaments and childrens' toys. I bought a couple of things for my Seattle grandkids.

One night during supper the power went out (120,000 people were without power that night) and we spent the rest of the evening playing with the flashlight and playing scrabble by candlelight.

We walked with the boys to the local hardware store where they bought gifts for Grandpa and Grandma and I bought tissue and gift wrap.

We got to babysit one night while Mom and Dad had a date night with friends.

Harv went ice fishing with our Son in law, the grandboys and a whole troop of other fathers and kids.

We girls played Scrabble, baked and made cards. And of course made our greatly anticipated mother/daughter shopping trip to Saskatoon. What a great place to shop. The shops there are different than at home and it's always alot of fun to do it with my daughter.

With the boys, we read books, made pizzas, built Lego,

played Uno and Scrabble (Grandboy E is very good for Grade 1) walked to town,

wrestled and cuddled. All fun for Grandpa and Grandma.

We also celebrated Christmas one day - We used the advent devotional booklet

"The Colours of Christmas" as our focus on Christ's birth.

It's excellent - tying in the whole story of God's love from
Creation on with activities for the children.

It was so much fun watching the boys open their gifts.

Their eyes shone and hugs and thank -yous were liberally distributed.

For Christmas dinner we did Raclette.

For the boys, who hadn't had it before, it was fun and exciting

to cook their own dinner at the table.

(I may have to do a post on Raclette someday.)

It's been a favourite of ours ever since our Swiss neighbours introduced us to it.

Now it's time to go home. Harv left yesterday, traveling south to Swift Current and Regina stopping at Potash mines and wind farms on the way. I have an appointment at home tomorrow so I'm flying home this afternoon.

One Christmas celebrated - two more to go.

That's the way it is when your children are married with a spouse's family

to celebrate with as well.

It works well for our family - every other year we get them all at our place on Christmas day.

This year is the "in-laws" turn and our Christmas is when

we can best arrange it with each of the children. That's fine by me.

We are just so thankful for our children and their spouses and familys. How blessed we are.