Category Archives: Fun and Games

Grandparents’ Day and Whirling Dervishes

David and I had the opportunity to attend Grandparents’ Day at three of our grandchildren’s school this week. I always love to go to these because it is always so uplifting to see the kind of education my grandchildren are getting. They go to a large Christian school and I believe they are getting the best education they can get.

When you enter the school you see all these inspirational signs on the walls. This is a Jesus Christ centered school. The children and teachers are all so friendly and happy and there is just a wonderful atmosphere in the whole school.

We grandparents were directed to the auditorium where a jazz band was playing big band music. They had us all tapping our feet and clapping our hands. Sorry my zoom lens wasn’t working. The boy playing the xylophone twirled the sticks as he played. The trombonist was amazing.

There were greetings from the principal and others and then this pastor gave a short sermon using the piano as an object of the sermon. There is a middle C. Christ should be the center of our lives. The black and white keys symbolize the good and bad that happens in our lives. There are major key people and minor key people. He played as he talked using music to enhance what he said. He played one song playing it fast for the young people, slow for the older people and then really fast to show how fast our lives pass. He was a great teacher and it was a wonderful object lesson. I could have listened to him much longer.

The Praise Team sang and that girl in the green shirt. That’s our granddaughter. She sings in all the chapels they have each week. I am so proud of her.

There were two days for Grandparents’ Day The middle school was the first day and elementary the next. This was on day one.

Our granddaughter took us around the school showing us where all her classrooms are. This is her locker.

She is on the honor roll.

There were photographs in the hall taken by middle schoolers. I was amazed at how professional they looked. When I was their age I could barely put one foot in front of the other without tripping!

The next day David and I had to split up. David went with our younger grandson and because he didn’t have the camera, we didn’t get any pictures of what they did. They made hand prints and put them together on a page and our grandson wrote a really sweet note to us. I got to hang out with this grandson. He is so much fun. I noticed he was seated in the front row in home room and I wondered why. Hmmmm. He and I almost started giggling when a man sneezed really loudly. Maybe he takes after me a little.

The students stood up around us and said a really long passage from the Bible from memory. I was impressed.

This is his locker. I looked inside it and was amazed how neat it is because I have seen his room. I love this kid.

Saw this sign on the side of one of the teacher’s desks. I think it could be parentisms also as I have said many of these things to my children.

In the evening we played Dizzios, a form of Dominoes. It’s probably one of my favorite games even though I think I have only won it one time. My grandsons are really good at this.

Speaking of grandsons, I will leave you with some pictures of my two youngest grandsons who spent the night with us last weekend. I brought out the old electric football game our sons use to play with and the boys were entertained for a long time. As you will see, I could not get a picture that wasn’t blurry because these boys were on the move all the time. Whirling Dervishes.

Here’s to wonderful Christian schools and grandchildren. Bye.

Festival Fun

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Before I tell you about the festival we attended Saturday, I have to show you the other Strawberry Shortcake doll I found while putting the rest of them away

This is Sour Grapes and her snake, Dregs. I had completely forgotten about her.

She uses way too much mascara. I think she is a villainess. She doesn’t look too friendly.

David and I went to a festival that was being held at our grandchildren’s school. It was a lot of fun. This lady was walking around giving everyone a “high” five. The kids loved it.

You paid one price and got to do everything there was to do and there was a lot.

There was sumo wrestling. The suit was almost too big for my grandson.

It rather overwhelmed him, but he wanted to try. This was the second time he did it that day.

The men had to stand the two contestants upright and then they were supposed to try to knock each other down.

They were both down within seconds. I think the weight of the suits was what did it. I laughed so hard at this. It was really funny to watch.

Then they were placed upright again and tried once more.

Then down they went again.

This is my grandson who was the sumo wrestler. Yes, his hair is fire retardant. He’s the one who reminds me of my dad so much.

There was reverse bungi jumping. My granddaughter is putting on a vest she had to wear to do this. The object was to run against the bungi cord and try to get to the end before it pulled you back. I told her if she could make it to the end, I would give her five dollars. Sneaky, but I knew she wouldn’t be able to do it. Larger people than she had tried, but she gave it her all.

She began to run as hard as she could.

Hair flying, she ran against the bungi cord as hard as she could, but it sprung her back less than halfway to the end. I gave her five dollars later, anyway.

Another grandson climbed the big rock. It was pretty high, but he made it to the top and rang the bell. He’s so athletic.

He also became a human bowling ball. Strapped in this contraption, he was rolled toward the bowling pins.

It took longer to get him strapped in than it did for him to be rolled toward the pins. Safety first.

There was a man drawing caricatures and he drew this one of my granddaughter. I think it’s really cute. But then, I think she is really cute. The man drew for over two solid hours nonstop. I don’t know how many caricatures he drew, but it had to be a hundred or more.

There was so much for kids to do and they could do it as much as they wanted. This was popular with the boys.

The water dunking booth was popular. The men in the tank were good sports and goaded the kids to try to knock them down. I tried once, but I threw like a woosy girl. Absolutely no arm strength. Some of those boys could throw the hard balls.

All in all, it was a fun evening. There were vendors there also selling elephant ears, funnel cakes, Italian food, Chick-fil-A(yum) differently seasoned French fries. island food, ice cream, and much more. We tried several things and they were all good.

Here’s to fun festivals and grandchildren to enjoy them with. Bye.

Grandma’s Camp 2013 or How to Lose Your Mind in Three Short Days

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Okay, that last bit on my post was just my crazy sense of humor. This has been such a busy, hectic, fun, crazy few days. It started Saturday with a bunch of kids coming to swim in our pool. They all had a lot of fun. On Father’s Day, we had some of our children and grandchildren here for swimming and a cook out. Then three of the boys stayed for another three days. All of them are under seven. Need I say more.

We tried to pack a month’s worth of activity in three short days. Monday we took the boys to the Croc store to buy them all Crocs so that we wouldn’t be fastening sandals all the time and they could get them dirty and we could just wash them off. We took them to the park to play. We took them to the army museum near our home where they learned just how many of the army vehicles their Grandpa had driven during his thirty-six years in the Army National Guard. Then we took them to a lake where they bothered an old man fishing so we didn’t stay long there. They painted birdhouses that their Grandpa had built for them. They actually got more paint on the birdhouses than on themselves or me. They helped with the chickens. They swam for hours. We took them to McDonald’s where I haven’t eaten in years. Had forgotten how good a Big Mac is. They sat in the hot tub. They played Dizzios. I took them for a two mile walk. They picked cherries to feed the chickens. They swam some more. They watched a movie(only because Grandpa and Grandma needed a break.) That was just Sunday evening and Monday.

On Tuesday we took them to a really great place in our town called the Kid’s Commons. It’s a place where kids can do all kinds of things like make giant bubbles, do experiments, play games, build things, crawl in and out of secret places, and get flushed down a giant toilet. Yes, a giant toilet, but it is actually a slide. It is advertised as the world’s largest toilet. Our town needs to be known for something. The boys loved it. We spent almost three hours there before lunch. Then we took them to another great place in our town called Zaharako’s, a wonderful old fashioned ice cream parlor. It has a calliope they play every so often and a wonderful old time soda fountain. We almost lost this wonderful place before a man in our town decided to return it to its former glory. The calliope had been stored somewhere in California and he found it and brought it back and had it installed once again in the parlor. The boys had root beer floats and ice cream with a cherry on top after their lunch. By that time, David remembered we were parked in a three hour parking place and we had been gone for four and a half hours. We walked to the car fearing we would find a parking ticket on our windshield, but we were lucky we did not have one. Whew. Then we came home and we tried to get the boys to rest for a while, but no one slept. We had had a major meltdown Monday evening because all the boys were so tired and we didn’t want it to happen again. But all was well for the rest of the day. The boys spent hours in the pool. I think they must have jumped into the pool a few hundred times and our two youngest started to learn to swim. A great difference from last year when our youngest grandson was afraid of the water.

Today at seven o’clock, the older grandson and me were in the hot tub. Soon the others joined us. Then I went back to take water to the chickens and Bonnie got in the pen and grabbed my lame chicken, Freedom. I got her away from her and then she grabbed her again. All the time I was screaming for David to come help me as Bonnie is a very big, strong dog. We finally got her out of the pen and I went to check on Freedom and she was none the worse for wear. The second time in a week she has been attacked by our dogs. Gonna have to be more careful going in and out of the pen. Freedom is one tough little chicken.

We took the boys to the steakhouse for lunch and then drove the two youngest home where the boys played with their pygmy goats and looked at their chickens. We then took the last grandson to a friend’s house. Driving home David said, “Do you hear that?” I said, “What?” and he said, “The quiet.” Yes, I heard it and it kind of made me sad. I miss them already, but the quiet is nice.

Here are a few pictures from Grandma’s Camp.

Cousins swimming.

Hot tubbing.

Peter Pan flying.

The soda fountain. Even the cash registers look old but are computerized. The young man at the register goes to our church. The red head in the forefront is one of our grandboys.

The old calliope at Zaharako’s.

Tossing basketballs at the Kid’s Commons.

One of the many places to crawl through.

Making a giant bubble around them.

Getting “flushed.”

Proudly displaying the bird houses they had painted.

Grandpa with his young men. Love this picture.

Love these guys.

This is how we all feel after three full days of fun and frolic. Wonderful memories. Sweet Dreams. Bye.

Growing up in the fifties

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To many people living today, the nineteen fifties and sixties seem like ages ago. For those of us who grew up in that time, it seems like only yesterday.

This is a picture of me and my brothers, Fred, Andy and the baby, David. I also had another older brother, Jack and an older sister, Joanne. We all lived in the little house in the background on our daddy’s farm. It had no air conditioning, no central heating and NO bathroom. Just think, six kids and NO bathroom. We kids didn’t have a room to ourselves either until some started leaving the nest Anyway, it must have been Easter because Fred is holding a paddle ball. We always got paddle balls in our Easter baskets. Look at those rolled up jeans. The height of fashion in those days. I’ve never seen a dog mug for the camera like that one was doing. Can’t remember his name, but he sure is grinning.

It was an idyllic childhood. At least it was for me. There was always something to do and animals to play with. There were, of course dogs and cats and kittens in the barn, cows chickens, ducks, pigs and at one time a little old ram I raised for 4-H and later a horse that my brother helped me get when I was around twelve or thirteen.

During the summers we never stayed inside for a minute. In fact, Mom shooed us outside right after breakfast and we stayed outside until dinner at noon and then back outside we would go again until supper. The only time I spent in the house was when I was helping Mom clean the house or do dishes or when I was sewing on her Singer sewing machine.

See that big wrap around porch behind us? Also see my little brother’s droopy drawers? We use to roller skate on it, the porch, not the droopy drawers. I was so happy when I finally got my first pair of skates. You know, the kind with a key you had to tighten over your shoes.. I also spent hours on that porch swinging back and forth on the swing as I read one of the many books I got at the library. In the evenings we would sit outside swinging and listen to the adults as they talked about the day. Sometimes we would play hide and go seek or kick the can. We played a game my brothers made up called Battle Station. You see, we lived on a very little traveled gravel road so at night if or when a car would go by and if we kids were out in the yard one of my brothers would yell, “Battle station!” and we would all run and hide. We also looked for flying saucers. Mom was always seeing them or at least she made us believe she saw them. Sometimes as we sat on the porch, bats would fly around above us. I didn’t like that so well. I watched the Aurora Borealis from this porch with Mom one evening when the atmosphere was just right and they appeared farther south than usual.

See that old watering trough? The cows drank out of it. That is how close the house was to the barnyard. One time I got into the trough to cool down. My mother was not happy I did that, but I was hot. I love the picture of that old car. I’m not sure whether that was ours or if we had visitors that day. Seems like we had a lot of visitors especially at meal times because my mother was such a good cook.

This is me and my baby brother, David. I guess my parents weren’t too afraid of me swinging from so high up. I just wonder how I got up there. We always had a dog around. Guess that is why I always like having dogs. This one seems to be standing guard by David. Daddy probably made this swing set and the little swing David sits in. What’s with my hair? Mom always was giving me home permanents and the frizzier they were the better. I would come out of her home “salon” looking like Harpo Marx. I had curls that lasted for months. People always knew when Mom had been doing my hair. I quit having permanents years ago. Free at last.

Whew, I had to get out of that black and white world and get some color into this blog. Wonder when the world turned from black and white to color? Hmmm. There are many tales to tell about living on the farm, like the two men who my brothers heard talking in the barn. How I almost burnt down the rabbit house. Whoops, maybe I better keep that one quiet. Or the time the bull chased me or the time I jumped off something in the barn and ran a nail into my foot or……. well, these stories will just have to wait for another day. Bye.

Busy Weekend Ahead

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Whew, do you ever wonder where the days go? I get up and before I turn around it is time to go to bed. I’ve been trying to stay up later, but by ten o’clock I am tucked in with a good book and nodding off by eleven. I thought it was nine o’clock when I got up this morning although as I came down the stairs I thought it was awfully dark for nine. When I saw the clock on the stove, it was just seven. I decided I was not going to go back to bed because David and I had plans for the morning.

When David got up we went to IHOP for brunch where I got an omelet and spinach and cheese melt, yum, and then went shopping for gardening things. I got a new potato fork. Whoopie!! I won’t be digging any potatoes with it, but will use it to turn the compost pile. I’ve been wanting one for a while. Better than any jewelry. We looked for some new food for the dogs. Suddenly they are both turning up their doggie noses at the food they have been eating for years. Maybe it’s because I have spoiled them with treats and scraps in their food and when they get it plain, they don’t like it.

I got some pink phlox and hamburger at Jay C. How’s that for diversity?

Then on to Rural King. One of my favorite stores. I’d rather go there than any department store. Had to check on the baby chicks even though I won’t be getting any more for a while. The Austrolops are so pretty. There were some chicks with little white bottoms. I don’t know what kind they were, but they were so cute. Wonder if they keep their white bottom into adulthood? They would be easy to see for a predator, I would think with their shiny bottoms gleaming

We got some basil and thyme plants, a magnolia tree and fifty bags of mulch. Let the mulching begin. Will probably put down a hundred or so bags before we are done.

I love Spring and getting ready to garden. I have tomato plants growing and will plant cucumbers and pumpkins and garlic. That’s about it. Seed is so expensive anymore you can almost buy the food for what the seed costs. Last year after all the time, money and work, I only got two quarts of green beans from the garden so I am definitely not planting green beans this year. David says I am a hoarder because every time we go to the grocery I buy several cans of green beans. I like having plenty on hand and eat a lot of them myself. I can buy almost thirty cans of green beans for what a pound of green bean seeds would cost me.

I am reading a really good book right now. One I probably wouldn’t have chosen on my own, but I read about it on a blog I read and they are doing a discussion group on it. I ordered it for my Kindle and I can hardly put it down. It is about Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a theologian during the second world war who was one of the men who tried to assassinate Adolph Hitler. He led such an interesting life and lived out his faith during the war. He was held in prison and eventually murdered, but he also wrote many letters to his fiancée and there is a book of those I would like to read next. Not a book I would have looked at and said “Hey, I need to read that,” but I am glad it was brought to my attention.

David and I are going to our first auction this weekend. We haven’t been to one for a couple of years and have really missed it so we made a promise to ourselves we would get to one or two this year. We use to go about every weekend, but how many antiques and bric a brac can two people have? We should open an antique store ourselves. But we never get rid of anything. I am not a hoarder, I promise. You can walk through my house and I have room to store things. I just really should not buy anything else. We shall see what happens when the bidding begins!

Hope all will be well with you this weekend. Bye.

Bunnies, Chicks and Little Boys

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A week of April gone already. I wish these Spring months would last longer. Why is April a short month when it is one of the prettiest of the year?

Easter came early this year. We had three of our grandsons all weekend. This is the quietest they were the whole time. Notice the smiles?!!?? Put a boy in front of a camera and you never know what will happen.

Took them to our church’s Easter egg hunt where they made crafts, ate lunch and hunted hundreds of eggs.

Four handsome men ready to go to church.

Been working on a couple of quilts. Cutting hundreds of squares for ninety blocks. I really enjoy the process. Now that it is getting warm out I am spending more time outside and not in my shop. I miss my shop when I am outside and when I am in my shop I think what I should be doing outside in the yard and garden.

David took the cover off the pool. Right now it looks like a dirty, muddy river. Hard to believe in a few weeks it will be pristine, sparkling water again.

Hard to believe this vast wasteland will be full of flowers and green grass again. Looks pretty barren right now, doesn’t it? I always think this is the ugliest time in the garden just before all the perrenials come up and brighten the landscape again. Season follows season and it never changes. Warm weather will come with scudding white clouds and bright blue skies and warm, balmy breezes. I know I am probably one of very few who thinks winter went too fast this year. I was actually glad we had one more real snow before winter bid adieu. I kind of like it when you can’t go out and can stay inside and drink hot chocolate and watch movies on television. When it is warm, I want to be outside as much as possible. My tomatoes will be ready to plant in a few weeks and then the rest of the garden and there will be no rest keeping the garden watered and free of weeds. Well, I try anyway. About July I loose all interest in weeding when it’s ninety degrees outside and the weeds are growing faster than the vegetables. I tell the vegetables to fend for themselves and go into the air conditioning.

Meanwhile the chicks are growing bigger every day. I can hand feed them now and they come running when I call them. Soon we will take them outside in their pen where they can scratch for bugs and worms in the warm earth. They are going to love it. The pen is getting rather cramped for them as they grow bigger and bigger. Sorry for the poop in the picture, but I just look at it as good fertilizer. Do you know chicken poop is high in nitrogen and is good for the garden? You have to let it “ripen” for a while before you put it on any plants as it will burn them otherwise. I have a compost pile I will put it on until it is ready to use. Chickens really are the perfect pet and animal. They demand very little attention, eat bugs, lay eggs, aerate the ground, provide fertilizer and, if you would do so, provide fried chicken for the table. My chickens are not getting eaten, but will be egg layers. Fresh eggs have yellower yolks, taste better than store bought eggs and you know they are fresh when you gather them every day. Anyone could keep a couple in a pen in their garage with very little trouble and you could have fresh eggs every day. It’s a win-win situation.

Hope you are enjoying Spring and all it has to offer. Bye

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Snicklefritz

So glad you came. Come sit a spell and read about the tale of my life.

Category Archives: Fun and Games

Grandparents’ Day and Whirling Dervishes

Festival Fun

Grandma’s Camp 2013 or How to Lose Your Mind in Three Short Days

Growing up in the fifties

Busy Weekend Ahead

Bunnies, Chicks and Little Boys