Monday, March 10, 2014

Fun Weekend With The Granddaughter

My husband and I have been in Florida for almost 6 months.  Now we are back in TN and catching up with the family.  Specifically our 9 year old granddaughter our first weekend back.

For over a month Ella has made plans to spend our first weekend home with us.  So on Friday after school her mother dropped her off at our house.  Let the fun begin, lol.


I set up "her" room by emptying out a cabinet and some drawers.  I also added some paper, pens, card games, a flashlight(it gets dark in our house), and a walkman...yes a walkman, lol.

It's a good thing I made room...the kid came with about 7 or 8 bags.  I think she is moving in.


Friday....

Ella and I playing Sorry....We played many many games.  She won some and I won some:)



Her Papa played chess with her.  She is a very good player for one so young:



Retro Ella...she digs the walkman, lol:



Later on I introduced Ella to some of my online friends(you know...the ones Mike calls "my invisible friends")  Ella introduced herself and my friends were great.  They all wrote back to her and made her feel so welcomed.  Thank you...you all know who you are:)  Ella thought it was the coolest things for people to write back to her.  It made her feel special.

She asked everyone what their favorite cookie was and one of the responses was Snickerdoodles...so we decided to make some on Saturday.

We spent fun quality time as a family.  Lot of games and lots of fun.



Saturday...

Today we took Ella to town.  We needed to run some errands


Ah...to Papa's favorite store...Lowe's.  Ella being Ella:)




It was a beautiful day so we spent some time  outside when we got home.  Ella helped my kick off the gardening year by planting our very first seeds...some lettuce and spinach:)  Of course Niki helped us:)





Here is Ella posing while she makes Snickerdoodles:



More fun and games with Papa and I.  I taught her to play Skipbo which she really likes.  Then we made our own game of Scattergories.  Ella and I came up with almost 150 categories and I wrote them all down on small pieces of paper.  Ella wrote out all the letters.  We made the categories easier enough for Ella to have fun.  If anyone wants some categories ideas just let me know.  We have plenty.


After games it was girl night.  Papa got a break and Ella and I each took our showers and then it was time for the girly stuff.


Ella explained how to put the curlers in my wet hair and we put them in:




Ah...time for the nails:



After the nails dried we made ice cream sundaes and played more games.  Now we have to sleep with the curlers in.  Ugh..I have never done that before.



Sunday...


Time for the rest of the family to join us.  We are back home which means Sunday breakfast at our house:)


The new Ella and I....and no I am not curling my hair again, lol:




Our grandson, AJ.  He is growing up now:)




And the "dawtah" as Mike says, lol:




Good times around the breakfast table:


After breakfast we all played our homemade Scattergories.  AJ re wrote the letters in magic marker and he helped me come up with about 50 more categories.

Here is our game:



We had fun with the kids as always.  Mike and I really missed seeing them and spending time with them.  We have lots of cool things planned with them this year:):)


I lost Niki after everyone left...ah there she is, hiding, lol:



Some of our deer showing up right outside the front door:




Nicole showed up a few days later to visit.  Niki "loves" Nicole:





That was just a quick update of the fun we had with the family.  Once the weather breaks we will get back to some work.  For now we are enjoying being back home, getting some rest, and catching up with the kids:):)


I will post again on Thursday with something from the kitchen...hmm???


Have a great week.

10 comments:

  1. A happy grin on everyone's face, says it all...

    Welcome Back!! :) Aint it good to be back :) :) :)

    I wish you well....

    Jesse

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    1. It sure is good to be back.

      Thank you Jesse:)

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  2. AJ has really grown since the last picture I've seen of him! Good fun times you are making for those grand kids we use to play so many different games when the kids were home. Never played or heard of Scattergories bet it would be fun. Wildflowers would be awesome looking out your patio doors. Niki looks happy to be home also. Glad you made it home safely & look forward to the next Mike & Lisa adventure. :) Jaxson

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    1. We played more card games and Scrabble when I was growing up. Scattergories is fun. I'm looking out the window now thinking about what I can plant outside our fence since the cows are gone:) Mike says I need to stop spreading out. I told him...I can take an acre, lol.

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  3. What a wonderful weekend. The curls look pretty good, considering you didn't really know what you guys were doing...LOL!! And after all that time in Florida, I'm sure it was a lot of fun to just be girls!!
    When my wife and I were dating, she did me up in curlers on day...LOL!! Like you......"Never again!!"
    I had to laugh with your comment about all the bags that Ella had....I remember those days with our daughter.

    What is the deal with the two refrigerators? I think I remember you saying that you didn't like one of them (an LP unit) when you were first setting up the house, but thought you had swapped it out?

    I like that little shelf over the stove (for the microwave)...where did you get that? I'm guessing that it didn't come with the stove?

    Again, it was a wonderful weekend...thanks for sharing with us.

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    1. When I was a teen I got a perm and it cost a lot of money. Just think I could have curled my hair each night for less. Yeah if I wanted curls it really did come out fairly uniform. Did your wife get a picture, lol.

      Ah the last "problem" Mike wants to solve, the two refrigerators. The smaller one runs on propane and electric...but it is small. I prefer a larger one...not huge but not so small. So we also have the regular electric refrigerator but our solar system cannot run that one until the days are longer and we have more sun. Mike is looking into a Sunfrost. They use much less electric but they are ugly...at least I think so. That is something we need to fix to be normal here.

      I ordered the shelf with the stove. The company is Premier. If I was to do it over again I would save that money and ask Mike to just build a shelf for me:) It is handy.

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  4. Some of my best memories are of the time I spent with my grandparents while I was young.
    You guys with all your panels and batteries should easily be able to run your a/c powered fridge. Something is wrong if you can’t. Might be time to upgrade to a 24 or 48 volt inverter. How is the specific gravity doing in your batteries? Is Mike checking them with a hydrometer?
    Gary

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    1. Yes…great memories in the making:)

      We can run our AC powered fridge during most of the Spring, all of the Summer and part of the Fall but in the winter the sun moves farther away and days are cloudier. We have less sun here which means less available power for us. Our wind generators only produce if the wind is consistent and they are not a very good source of power for us. Our system is great but with the loss of sun in the winter we need to use either a propane refrigerator or find one that uses very little electric. We have never run into anyone who is off gird that can run a regular refrigerator year round…heck most can't even run one in the summer.

      Inverter won't change anything.

      Batteries are in great condition. Mike does check them once a month and adds distilled water and acid as needed.

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  5. Hmmmm I have a daughter that brings her dirty laundry from her apartment, when she comes home for the night LOL (Does that count??? LOL) Just wait til she goes off to College!! A couple of truck loads to move her then!

    Daffodils or irises would be good along a fence line. Love those yellow daffodils more though, really brightens up the grounds better in the spring.
    Wife ordered tulips that happened to be as big as your hands when they opened up! Shame my Brother in law kept cutting them down after the bloom was gone, so that, after a few years, they didnt have enough energy to come back up again. Rascal... Oh well, you cant pick your family I reckon 'sigh' :)

    I wish you well...

    Jesse

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    1. LOL…Ella actually did leave her dirty laundry and toothbrush behind. Yes I did wash her clothes.

      Maybe your wife will plant new ones.:) I love flowers….Mike…well not so much.

      I think we all have good and bad in our families, lol.

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