a week in the life of a grandma...

Wow, it's been a whirlwind around here. Our very brave daughter-in-law, Ellie, drove up to NE Ohio from South Carolina with our two grandsons, Deacon (4) and Owen (2).

Our son, Andy, wasn't able to get away from his church responsibilities this time, but they'll be back in a month for our family reunion in July. Ellie and the kids started out late on the Friday night before Memorial Day and stopped after a couple hours and stayed overnight in a hotel. On Saturday afternoon, they caught up with us at a birthday party for my great-nephew...that was out in the country about an hour farther from our house!

My niece Ann and her hubby Adam live on a 1000 acre preserve that it owned by the State of Ohio. He is a ranger and the property just happened to have a century house on it that they are able to rent. They've done a ton of work on the property and they also cultivate a huge garden. We enjoyed a lovely sunny and warm day there visiting with family and eating all the yummy food. Happy First Birthday, Abe!

Abe had a blast opening all his birthday presents...

The back porch of the century house...my niece Ann with baby Abe, his daddy Adam, and in the front, my son, Sam. It was wonderful to be outdoors on such a perfect day, and the kids had much to keep them happy and occupied...

On Sunday after church, we took the four grands plus Ellie and Sam & Joanna out to eat lunch. Fortunately we found a kids-friendly restaurant that had a semi-private room for us to use. The kids enjoyed making their own ice-cream sundaes there. When we got home, we set up a slip 'n' slide in our backyard.

Our little next door neighbor boy, Kyle (red swim suit), is exactly Deacon's age, and so the more the merrier...Kyle's family has a tramboline which the kids also enjoyed.

I'd die if I tried this!

By Sunday night, this is what my family room looked like! My camera would break if I took a picture of the kitchen! But I was too tired to care, or even be embarrassed that two of Ellie's friends came to stay overnight...because...

early on Monday morning (Memorial Day) they were participating in a 5-K race in our town and they just needed a place to stay. Emily and Sarah were great sports about our chaos...

Joanna, Sam, Ellie and my brother Don (a 10 time marathon veteran) all ran the 5-K...it was Joanna's very first race and I was really proud of her for doing it! It was SO HOT that morning and the sun was SO BRIGHT that some of the pictures didn't come out very well...

Here comes Don...

and Sam...

Ellie wouldn't let me post her running picture, even though it was REALLY cute...she was smiling and waving...so here she is with Owen at the community pancake breakfast which followed the race. The runners all got to eat for free.

Backing up just a bit, it was our job to take care of the kids while the runners had to arrive early to get registered for the race. So we opted for the nearby donut shop.

Right after the pancake breakfast, we took the kids to our small town parade...where we found Abe Lincoln riding on a fire truck!

Our town has unfortunately lost several young men in our country's current wars, and there is quite a bit of patriotism here...

One day we went to lunch at Chick-Fil-A. I watched the kids for a bit in the playroom so Ellie could have some conversation with the two great-grandmas.

One night, Deacon made our supper for us...which you can read all about here...

And then a trip to Dollar Tree was pleasing for everyone!

I sure appreciate all the effort it was for Ellie to bring the boys up for this week long visit. There was a lot of stuff I wanted to do but we couldn't because we had rain almost every day. One thing I really enjoyed was playing "I Spy" with the boys at bedtime. They got into the twin beds in the semi-dark and I sat in a chair calling out whatever "I spied". They had to find it with the flashlight without getting out of bed. Eventualy the game would be over and they would taper off to sleep, still holding their flashlights. It was a great week...and I'm a tired but very happy granny!