Time to say Goodbye

I asked Daddy to take a picture of us this morning.


Grandma drove him to school, and we said goodbye. He said he wished I could stay for a few weeks. I told him he will be with me this summer again for a few weeks, we just don't know yet exactly how it will all work out, but I hope he will be with me at Chautauqua again. Also he may be with me in Texas. He said he wants to help me decorate my new house. "I am good at that. And you need two people to hang pictures!" He IS good at decorating!

Tarzan and Beads

It was hard for the boy to get up today with the time change. At least he was not the last one to school!

I walked to pick him up after school so that he could play in the woods one more time.




Playing Tarzan again:


Kevin and the girl above swung on the same rope together.

He is my best photographer, so I asked him to take some shots of me.


Mommy and Daddy arrived home last night after Kevin was in bed, and they were still asleep this morning when I took him to school. So he saw Mommy first when we arrived home from school and the woods. She showed him her souvenirs and gave him a candy alligator. They also bought him a T-shirt with a lizard.

When we bought Karin's flowers on Saturday, I bought a packet of Perler Beads with pegboard to create pictures. Then you iron the picture to fuse the plastic beads together. He created an owl from the picture provided which he finished today and is showing Daddy.

He also made his own creation -- a flower.

Sunday Sidelines

We left for church with time to spare, but, silly Grandma, forgot her phone and had to go back for it! We were hoping to hear from Heather to get together with her at some point today, so had to have the phone. But we never did connect with Heather, and we were late for church.

One of the first persons we saw was Laura! They gave each other a big hug! :)

Again, Kevin wanted me to stay with him in his church-time class. Again, Kevin had a fabulous teacher! And Kevin was primed for the class! The topic was exactly what we have been reminded about with the Resurrection Eggs: Christ's path to the cross and the resurrection. Kevin had his hand up first to answer many of the questions. The teacher called him a VERY smart kid! He knew there were 12 disciples, Judas was the one who betrayed Jesus, 30 pieces of silver was the amount given to Judas, and more.

After church, he played with his friends, and I chatted with mine until 1:00. We grabbed some lunch and went to the cemetery to install new flowers for Karin for the spring, and, perhaps into the summer before I will return.


Before heading for home, we enjoyed another Goodberry's!!! :) We also bought groceries and bought a copy of "The Lorax" at Barnes & Noble. We finally arrived home around 4pm -- too late to go ice skating again. But we made oatmeal chocolate chip cookies!

Stephan is even more of a cookie monster than Grandma, so we stopped at his Dad's to leave him a container of homemade cookies.

Tonight we read "The Lorax," and talked about the differences between the movie and the book. We tired to google how Dr. Seuss came up with the name Lorax, but found no answers, though we read some interesting things connected to the story which we talked about -- like ecosystems and why the Once-ler's face was not revealed in the story.

Mixed-up Day

Nothing turned out today the way it was planned. First, I was to meet a college friend at Starbucks around 9am on our way to the cemetery to remove the wreath I placed there at Christmas time. Kevin slept until 9:45! We didn't even have time to go to the cemetery. We only had time to go shopping for new flowers and we will have to place them there tomorrow. We found them in an A.C. Moore store as well as some art projects for Kevin and some pussywillow branches (second choice as we couldn't find the white branches I wanted) to make an Egg Tree.

On our way back to the house, I began working with Kevin on saying the "s" sound correctly. He lisps -- with his tongue between his teeth while saying an "s." We had some success, but it will take a lot a practice and reminding to conquer it. By now, we were running out of time, as we had to pick up Lucky from home and Cullin from his father's by 12:30 (we were late) to get to Lucky's training class by 1:00 (we were 15 min. late). After barking for the first 15 min.,

Lucky did very well and was even used as a demonstration student!


Kevin spent the time going around the room and petting each individual student. Here he is giving attention to the teacher's (sitting on the floor) dog.

The plan had been to go ice skating for the afternoon, but Cullin didn't want to skate after all, and we were much closer to a Goodberry's Frozen Custard store than from home. So I asked the question. . . Of course, everyone wanted Goodberry's! YAY!!!! Soooo good.


We were using the GPS in Steve's car, but, it sure led us astray on the way home! We were LOST!!!! We have no idea how we got to the point we were at, but Cullin guided me home with the GPS on his phone.

So we missed out on skating today, but they have public skating tomorrow afternoon too.

We set up the Egg Tree and I got out the glitter eggs I had purchased at home to bring for his Egg Tree. They turned out to be a garland! So I tried cutting them apart and making knots and loops to hang them individually. Not the the most ideal eggs. :\

He also is working on the little bead art project I bought for him.

Kevin and I had a sandwich, then made it to "The Lorax" in time for the evening showing. Kevin LOVED it!!!! He said he wants the video and the book! He wanted to draw the Truffula trees tonight, but I told him we would buy the book tomorrow so that he could copy lots of Dr. Seuss's pictures.

On the way home, we could see Venus and Mercury as exceedingly bright stars and within 5 degrees of each other. We went out on the deck at home to admire the brilliant sky. I pointed out Orion to Kevin, and we looked it up on the web. I had forgotten that his right hand is up in the air and his left hand holds a bow.

We were able to find the corresponding stars. Then we went out the front of his house to see the Big Dipper. He was amazed that we saw the Big Dipper in Chautauqua last summer AND saw it here tonight. I explained that the Northern Hemisphere (using a ball) sees the same constellations and stars while the Southern Hemisphere sees totally different stars and constellations.

With losing an hour of sleep tonight, I wanted to encourage him to bed at a "decent" hour. He read two Easter books to me. I am SO pleased with his reading! Another 30 minutes on his chart for tonight! :)

Jungle, Hiccups, Reading

Today was Funny Hair/Bubble Gum Day for Kevin's class. His version of Funny Hair was definitely funny! LOL

When it was time to pick up Kevin from school, I asked Cullin (Kinga's oldest, now among my grandchildren too, and home from college on spring break) if he wanted to take his dog Lucky while I walked Pebbles (as I didn't think I could handle both of them!) and walk to school. He did! :)

Once we had Kevin, he wanted to head for the woods to show Cullin. Cullin had spent much of his youth in this neighborhood, even living within steps of this magical place and had never been there! He was surprised at Kevin's bravery!







Continuing our walk home.


Kevin undid his hairdo at home, but he still had a funny do plus funny expression! LOL

At home, Kevin weeded a large planter for his Mommy. He was so dirty, he had to head for the tub! After the bath, he wanted to me to hide the Resurrection Eggs again. I made them last year for him, and we have taken turns hiding them each day. There is a symbol inside each egg telling the story of Easter.

1. (Bread) Matthew 26:26
While they were eating Jesus took a piece of bread,
gave a prayer of thanks, broke it, and gave it to His disciples.
"Take and eat it," He said, "This is My body."
2. (Coins) Matthew 26: 14-15
Then one of the twelve disciples, named Judas Iscariot, went to
the chief priests and asked, "What will you give me if I betray
Jesus to you?" They counted out thirty silver coins and gave
them to him.
3. (Purple cloth, representing a purple robe) Mark 15:17
They put a purple robe on Jesus. . .
4. (Thorns) Matthew 27:29
Then they made a crown out of thorny branches and placed it on
His head, and put a stick on His right hand; then they knelt
before Him and made fun of Him. "Long live the King, of the
Jews!" they said.
5. (Scourge-a small piece of rope or thick string) Mark 15:15
Pilate wanted to please the crowd, so he set Barabbas free for
them. Then he had Jesus whipped and handed Him over to be
crucified.
6. (Cross) John 19: 17-18a
He went out, carrying His cross, and came to "The Place of the
Skull," as it is called. (In Hebrew it is called "Galgotha.") There
they crucified Him.
7. (Nails) John 20:25b
Thomas said to them, "Unless I see the scars of the nails in His
hands and put my finger on those scars and my hand in His
side, I will not believe."
8. (Sign) Luke 23:38
Above Him were written these words: THIS IS THE KING OF
THE JEWS.
9. (Sponge) Matthew 27:48
One of them ran up at once, took a sponge, soaked it in cheap
wine, put it on the end of a stick, and tried to make Him drink it.
10. (Spear) John 19:34
One of the soldiers plunged his spear into Jesus' side, and at
once blood and water poured out.
11. (Rock) Matthew 27:59-60
Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a new linen sheet, and
placed it in his own new tomb, which he had just recently dug
out of solid rock. Then he rolled a large stone across the
entrance to the tomb and went away.
12. (Empty) Matthew 28:6
He is not here He has risen just as He said.

At dinnertime, Steve and Kinga left for the weekend to celebrate their first anniversary. Cullin and Stephan (age 15) went to be with their Dad, leaving Kevin, me, and the two dogs all alone.

Kevin started hiccuping at school this afternoon, and it continued through the evening until he plugged his nose and drank some water. It seemed to work to stop them!

Kevin is to record how long he reads for the next two weeks. The classroom with the most minutes wins a prize. He read two books to me tonight -- 37 minutes. Then I began reading "Charlotte's Web" to him.

Jungle Gym

I walked to school again today to pick up Kevin and found a lovely path through the woods to use again on our way home.
I found him in the school yard with some friends from his art class in which they had made puppets.

Then we proceeded to the greatest natural jungle gym ever!!!!! Picture the setting: lovely woods with a paved path running along side on a 70 degree spring day. The perfect stream with clean water running through the woods. Fallen trees bridging the stream in a few places. Vines hanging waiting for Tarzan to arrive. Several schoolmates and their moms and younger siblings enjoying the same perfect playland.

Tentative first steps balancing on the first log bridge.

















Hanging from a dead limb!

Comfortable with navigating the tree bridges. Oh, my. . . Running and jumping while about 5 feet above the water.








Swinging on the Tarzan vines!






Beyond the creek was a tree deeply bend over, yet at least 15 feet above the ground where Kevin is on it! :-0 Way to make a grandmother's hair turn white!!!


We stopped at a playground adjacent to the natural jungle gym for some "safe" climbing and swinging.

On our way home, we met these adorable puppies.


Once we were home, it was bath time.


Tonight we played Blockus. Kinga won, Kevin came in second, Steve was third, and Grandma was on the bottom.