Grandma's Last Day

Today is my last day.  At church, the kids were called forward for a sermon for them.  Since Kevin is not at church regularly, he is sometimes shy, but he was not today.  He was right up there with the others!

It was "family day," so the kids stayed for the whole service.  I am not sure how much of the sermon sunk in, but it was a good one for the kids to hear too.  The pastor talked quite a bit about how important it is for children to obey their parents.  Today was also Communion Sunday.  Kevin has not been in a Communion service before, and I didn't have time to explain to him.  Since they did not offer gluten-free bread, I was not going to go forward, but Kevin wanted to!  So I took him up, and he had his first Communion with me watching!  Later he commented on the bread and wine, "That was a good combination."  And he is right.  It is a good combination, I thought so myself as a child.  I liked grape juice with Saltines (as the Baptists do it) as a snack, but my mother warned me to not pretend I was taking Communion.

Laura is probably Kevin's best friend at that church.  Her Mommy was also a close friend of Karin's.  They were having fun together, so I wanted their picture.  Then they turned shy.  ha!  Laura isn't really that tall.  She was wearing wedge shoes!  Quite the little lady.

After church, we met Heather and baby Tristan at Goodberry's, a frozen custard stand.  We had "healthy" sundaes:  strawberries and coconut on pineapple custard.   Yum! 

Then we stopped at Mommy's grave to leave some flowers for her.  Her marker still is away for repair. 

Busy Saturday

Our errands of the day included books and flowers.  Kevin's books are too young for him now.  He has some to grow into which were his step-brothers'.  Mommy is encouraging him to read every day, but it is drudgery for him.  Reading should never be unpleasant.  Grandma thinks he has the wrong reading materials.  First, we sorted through Kevin's books for him to chose ones we can ship to Kien.  Then we went shopping at Barnes & Noble.  We picked out a few novels and a J. K. Rowling biography which are at his reading level and will be enjoyable reads for him.  He wanted a Harry Potter Lego book.  Each page is a different character from the stories with information on the character and how to build it with Legos.  Since we could not buy the specialized Lego pieces, this book seemed like a $20 waste to Grandma.  But he really wanted it.  Guess what book kept him reading for hours the rest of the day! 

The second errand was to buy flowers for Mommy's grave.  Kevin helped pick the flowers and arrange them.  We tied them with a ribbon there, and had a store employee cut the wired stems to the right size. 

Mommy and Daddy went out tonight, leaving Kevin and I to make our own dinner and play games. 

Daddy's Birthday

I taught Kevin to play my favorite game this week -- "3 to 13."  He is very good and beat me each time we played the first few times!  And I wasn't "letting" him win; he had better cards.  After playing this morning, he was creative with the cards.

 Then he got creative with photography.

Today was Daddy's birthday!  We spent the afternoon shopping for a cake and birthday cards. We were looking for cards at Target.  The card writers of their cards are just gross/crass.  But we eventually found satisfactory ones.  Kinga finally called the bakery in her subdivsion and they had what she wanted!

Kevin and I taught Mommy and Daddy to play "3 to 13" last night, and they liked it too.  Mommy was the big winner last night.  So tonight all of us taught Stefan to play and he WON!  Not fair! 

End of the Easter Eggs

Today, we wanted to clean up the rest of the Easter Eggs.  Mommy was unfamiliar with Deviled Eggs.  Kevin helped me make them.  Kevin is shaking Parsley Flakes on them. 

Daddy LOVED eating Kevin's eggs.  After dinner, he gobbled the remaining ones making all of us laugh. 

Adventures at the NC Botanical Garden

I took Kevin to the local botanical garden with my membership+one card.  We looked at the displays around the main building and spotted a birdwatching area.  Kevin saw a Cardinal and I saw a Downy Woodpecker.  Then we spied a gate into a forested area with trails, so we left the garden and went "hiking."  We heard an Eastern Towhee (drink your ~tea~), Chickadees and saw a Turkey Vulture.

We saw this flower in the woods.  It looked like a Trillium to me, so I Googled "trillum red," and that is what it is!  Later we saw a section of the garden with hundreds of them.  We also saw a Pitcher plant.

We came across a bridge and you can't keep boys out of water!!!

I sat for a LONG time while he waded.  He even saw some little fish. 
We finally went back into the garden to see the treasures there.  They have a section of carnivorous plants, so we went looking for that.  Next we ran across this amazing chess set.  The pieces were all in disarray.  Kevin put them all in order, then played a game against himself until he was stuck in checkmate on one side and won on the other!  He reset the chessmen.  As we were walking away a family came along and started playing.

We were privileged to find an anole eating a fly!!!  A garden worker told us what kind of lizard he was. 

She told us about other things in that area including a Bloodroot plant, showing us the roots which have a red liquid looking like blood!

We stopped at Karin's grave to leave an Easter lily! 

(The marker has been sent away for repair)

 After church, there was an Egg Hunt for the kids!

The big boys had never hunted for their baskets before, so this was a fun adventure for everyone.

I spotted Kevin snuggled on Stefan's lap.  Sweet!

The Day Before Easter

 Grandma came with an Easter craft for the boy to do which I found on Today's Christian Women e-zine (I think).  I printed out the butterfly designs for Kevin to glue to backing paper.  He cut out the butterflies, bent the wings, then hot glued mini clothespins to the back.

Easter Eve and time to color eggs!!!

Kevin asked me today why my hands are crinkled.   LOL  

Two years ago, Kevin, in silliness, called everything "Mr. Potato Head."  Last summer everything was "chicken-butt." This year, "banana" is the word to describe everything.  Oh, my . . .   Crazy kid. . .  But adorable.  :)