The Great Eggscapade

Friday night of Easter weekend we kept the three munchkins over night to color eggs. Of course Emma is a pro at this activity now and she was the busy little bee getting things set up and ready while Gram (I) tried to save some of the eggs from an untimely death. I found that it was completely impossible to take pictures and color eggs at the same time....hence the blurry photos.

This is where we gave Lucy and Byron an egg and color crayon to make their little scribbles on. After a couple of demolished eggs we got a couple with only a crack or two. Of course this is right before the big toss into purple and yellow dye. You know you just can't gently place the egg in the dye you must throw it in to watch the colored splash. Now you know why there is no photo of this....picture gram running around with paper towels and trying the catch the dye before it stained everything.

"Hey Gram. I think maybe this crayon is for throwing up in the air" which is exactly what happened next.

So Lucy began running a temperature shortly after the great egg experience and they both sat down to have a snack of goldfish and watch "Goose and Pig" (this is what Lucy calls "Babe").

Here is Emmy, the real pro egg color girl. She wrapped rubber bands around a few for a neat design. Just to give you an idea of how active Byron really is look at the blur to the right of Emmy.

Next day. Yep! Now you can see the devil come out here in person.

Lucy hopping around on her new Dora the bouncing ball. Byron has a spider man ball but it was missing a part so back I go to Target. But in the meantime he had his new monkey broom to help his mommy out.

What A Guy Will Do When Hunger Strikes

Unless you have had the opportunity to see Byron in person you would not know just how big he is. He is barely 2 1/2 years old but looks more like 3 1/2. Not only is he tall like his daddy but he has large hands and feet and is quite solid and very heavy. It is becoming more and more difficult to just pick him up on a whim. To go along with his build he has an appetite for food, especially sweets like I have not seen in a long time. We must always be on guard if we have something that he shouldn't have before his dinner. He has super sonic hearing, vision and smell if it is sugar or chocolate and will come running instantly begging for bites or some of his own. One of his favorite words right now is "nack" meaning fruit snacks and he will literally grab Dave's hand and drag him to the pantry to get a snack all the while repeating "nack" over and over. The glee on his face when he gets a snack is something to behold but if he doesn't, let the tantrum begin. He makes us laugh so much with his drama right now.

Before he could verbalize Jill had taught him some sign language and one of the signs was eat. You do this by bringing your hand to your mouth with fingertips touching your thumb and tapping the lips to illustrate placing food in the mouth. Everything he does is pronounced and big and so instead of that sign he developed his way. He simply opens his mouth and points his index finger into his open mouth over and over again. Some time I would love to catch him on video doing this but until I can I just had to show this little video I ran across which so demonstrates at the end what he does.

This cat is Byron's brother.

Happy Durpay

Today is Kelli's birthday and little Lucy wanted to send her a birthday video. Kelli is in Baltimore spending a week with Brian seeing the sites so we will celebrate when she returns. But in the meantime here is Lucy singing for Aunt Kelli. I love the way she says birthday (durpay).

Emmy's Program

Last night we went to Emma's school program. The first, second and third grades were performing songs and dances from around the world. I love to watch the kids in action because some of the expressions are so great. Unfortunately there was no stage so it was pretty difficult to get pictures and video. But we did manage to get a few.
Here is Emma in the midst of one of the songs. She seems to be enjoying herself quite a bit. She has been singing some of these songs for a few weeks when she is visiting as well as she has shown me a few dance steps.

Lucy and Kelli are intently watching the program. I think this is one of the dances the kids were doing with all kinds of colored boa looking things. I don't really know what they were called but it was pretty cute, especially at the end when the some of the kids were arguing between themselves at how they were to be placed to make a star. At least I think that is what they were making....I couldn't see very well.

O.K. the program is over and grandma is bugging to take a picture. She really does not want to cooperate even with her dad telling her to. A long tiring day and evening. So Jed offers her a cookie and then the tune changes a bit.

Oh well now that perked her up. Just up her alley. But darn she has to go home to get it.

Here I finally got my picture.

Melted Crayons, Bubbles and Memorial

While Jed was away we kept Lucy and Emma this past weekend and had lots of activities going on. Emma composed some of her own music and here is a picture of Lucy trying to copy her at the piano.
We did many things like bake cookies, make big crayons from all of the bits and pieces we have accumulated, blew bubbles, chased chickens, collected eggs, played games, had pizza with Joe and Sheri, some old friends and also visited Kyla's memorial to take her some flowers.

This activity was very fun. We just broke and mixed up the crayons bits after taking off the paper and put them in baking tins and baked at 170 degrees until they melted. After letting them sit to harden for about an hour we had mixed up colors.

Emma blew bubbles for Lucy outside until she ran out of breath. Then "Old Grandma" had to take over while the girls chased and popped them.

Emma made a paper Easter egg to hang with the flowers she and Lucy picked out for their mommy. Emma picked the carnations and Lucy picked the color, "lellow" as she says.

Outside at Springfield Memorial Gardens. Cute aren't they?

This Little Boy

The Saturday before this last one we dropped by Jill and Wade's home to deliver some items from Costco. As usual when we drop by little Byron is so happy and immediately grabs Grandad's hand and drags him off to his bedroom, shuts the door and turns off the light. We then hear his ornery laugh...the one he has for teasing. He gives us lots of big hugs and keeps telling us "Bye Byes?" meaning he wants to go with us. This time was no different. He usually does not spend Saturday nights with us because they go to church early the next morning. But how can you resist this little guy getting his shoes and jacket and bringing them to you? I promised them I would give him a bath in the morning and bring him in for church which meant that he didn't really get to spend that much awake time with us. He just melts my heart because he is so happy to be going and just talks and laughs the entire time in the car.

It is the cutest little naughty things that he does that make me laugh out loud much to Wade and Jill's leering eye, you know the look of exasperation. He loves to see the animals and the reactions that he can get from them much to Kelli's chagrin. This I say because after softly touching and petting Marvin, her rabbit, he then delights in shaking the cage and making him hop away. He is such a busy little curious boy.

This is the perfect picture of him running up our lane to "Grandma and Grandads house" where he knows all he has to do is say "kack" (snack) and he gets fruit snacks galore.

Photos courtesy of Byron's mommy, Jill

Bake A Cooky Please Grandma

This cook book is the same book I learned to make cookies from as a child.  I was so happy to see that it was published again because of course, although my mom still has it I am sure, it was pretty sad looking when I was a child with pages missing and stained.  I ran out and purchased it and Emma and I made one of my old time favorites, Butterscotch Brownies.  These are so easy to make and we almost always have the ingredients on hand.  We left out the walnuts because most of the kids don't like them.

Butterscotch Brownies

2/3 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup shortening

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease an 8 inch square baking pan.

In large bowl, cream the melted butter and brown sugar then add vanilla and egg. In a separate bowl, mix together the flour, walnuts, baking powder and salt. Slowly add to egg mixture, stirring until well blended. Spread dough evenly into the prepared pan.

Bake for 20 to 24 minutes.  Don't over bake.

Heard Recently

Having the grandchildren spend the night regularly I hear things that are pretty cute. Just a couple.

Byron: He came through the door after arriving home and ran into the kitchen and turned around and being a man of many words said "COOK". Hmmm! I guess we know what is on his mind most of the time. The kid loves to eat.

Emma: "I know grandma, you could buy Lucy two pairs of shoes and then I could get a pair". This was said after we bought her a pair of pants, a shirt and a jacket. We bought Lucy a pair of pants, a shirt and a pair of "sparkle shoes" because her old ones were worn out. Emma was trying to be fair of course so that they would each have four things. Little stinker.....becoming quite the little shopper already.

Lucy: "Gwamma, I hungry" at 5:30 a.m. while still in bed. I heard her on the baby monitor and she absolutely would not go back to sleep so we had a snack before breakfast.

A Message For Our Cousins

A few weekends back Emma was missing her cousins from Baker. We were watching video clips that my sister, Kristi put up of some of the things the kiddos are learning in home school. Emma began wishing they were here and wanted to make a video message from her and Lucy.