Early in the morning on Monday, July 7th, Cindy and I took Blake to the airport in Grand Rapids so he could fly home. Then, she and I headed for Brian and Celia's house. Celia was going to girls camp on Tuesday for 5 days and I was going to be the nanny, or Grandma! Cindy stayed with us until Wednesday.
On Tuesday, we decided to go to the Erie Zoo. It was a fun zoo, the kids liked playing on some of the fun things, we went on a little train ride around the zoo. Unfortunately, we only saw about 1/3 of the animals because it started to rain.
We had taken a picnic and had planned to eat at the park by the zoo, but the rain changed that idea. We explained to Maden that we had to change our plan, we decided to go home and eat our picnic on the living room floor. As we headed down the road, Cindy asked if we should go to Chic-fil-A? Maden thought that would be ok, then they could play on the toy there. Well, when we got there, it was still raining too hard, so we changed our plan again and went through the drivethru and brought it home and ate on the living room floor. We learned that day that you have to be a little flexible with your plans. I was sure glad that Cindy was driving in the downpour!
After Cindy left on Wednesday, we were "carless" while Brian was at school. I was glad that Cindy had helped me plan some activities to help keep the kids busy. Maden started calling them "Grandma Activities". They made things with toothpicks and grapes, and played a game with numbered paper plates and beanbags. Annie loves to grab your phone and try to take a picture, she's pretty good with selfies.
On Thursday, our Grandma Activities included making snow in the summer with cornstarch and shaving cream, and a treasure hunt outside.
Friday, they painted a card to find a secret message. Maden made up a game outside using pots that he numbered and the bean bags. We also went down by the creek and played in the sand. I had avoided the creek before then, because it had become a river with all the rain.
The last activity was smashing some rocks I had bought at the Grand Canyon to see what was inside them. It looked like diamonds inside. Maden had fun seeing if he could smash other rocks too.
We went outside for wagon and tricycle rides. Annie is such a little copy cat, she does everything you do, puts her hands on her hips when you do, bends down like I was when I was trying to get an eye level picture. Maden did some piano lessons so he could earn media time. They were always glad when Brian came home, to have some Daddy time.
We went to the basement and played in the sandbox and with the trucks.
Saturday morning, we drove to girls camp to help Celia load up all her gear. I don't have a picture of Maden at camp, because he went off with his favorite Beehives.
Annie is at the age that she loves to have her picture taken. She poses real cute, Maden on the other hand, kind of avoids getting his picture taken. Annie thought she was really clever to sit at the "school" desk with Maden's notebook and pencil. They thought it was great to ride Brian's horsey legs. Saturday night, Brian and Celia went on a little date and Maden wanted to wait up for them. While we were waiting, we saw about a million fireflies! We went outside and caught two!
On Monday, Celia took us down to the Beach on Presque Isle. It was an overcast day, but nice and warm. Maden had to show me his muscles cause he was wearing his "muscle" shirt. It was a very nice day at the beach.
Annie is modelling the dress my friend Katie made for her, isn't she just a doll? Maden wanted the "pit" put together in case Annie needed to be caged up, looks like he wanted to be caged up. What big eyes you have, Annie. The top right, Annie and Maden are enjoying a yummy ice cream treat. The middle right picture is of the morning I left, Maden is getting one last time with the IPad, and Annie is supervising. The bottom right is how sad Annie was when she realized I was not getting back in the car at the airport. Just about broke my heart when Celia sent that picture as I was finishing up with security. I had a great time being the Grandma nanny, I'll do it again any time!
you did so many fun things while you were carless. what a good gramma nanny you are.
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