"Oui Oui Grand-mama!"

Party-time!

 

Wyatt's 2nd birthday.

 

 

We had a birthday breakfast for Wyatt:

French Toast "oui oui grand-mama"

and strawberries.

 

All Wyatt would eat were the strawberries.

He wouldn't even try his cake

but he did blow out the candles.

 

The entertainment was great!

 

Wyatt got the hang of the "blow-outs" almost instantly!

 

Happy Birthday two year old!

 

 

 

Last leg of the journey...

We had a fun drive away from Hillsdale, stopping for breakfast...driving through cute little towns...

All the loose ends tied up from four years of living in Hillsdale Michigan.

 

 

Then we hit Chicago!

It wasn't too bad, but definitely out of our comfort zones!

 

A part of the trip I was looking forward to, visiting with the Minnesota family for a few days, while Walker and Phil drove the rest of the way home together.

 

We arrived on Mother's Day and my gift was this box of six gigantic strawberries dipped in chocolate, with sprinkles! Delicious! the berries were so sweet and tasty.

 

I only spent a few days there, but had several trips to the park...

 

We went to the Como Zoo and Conservatory,

ending with a ride on the Carousel and a picnic...

 

I got to see Tirzah and Solomon at their Archery league.

 

a day of garage sale-ing.

Solomon bought these on-line skates and learned to skate before my very eyes!

 

The food was ALWAYS scrumptious!

 

And finally home again...

but only for two weeks.

I'll be back!

 

 

Sunday

Mother's Day

Best Mother's Day ever! 

My baby just graduated from College AND has a job!

On my way to see my Daughter and family.

Last time I saw them was too long ago.

 

Everyone has grown so much!

 

 

they always make me laugh!

 

Phil and Walker hit the road on their own...

 

See ya in Olympia in a few days!

Wednesday

Happy Birthday Tirzah!

So close and yet so far on your birthday!

Enjoy!

Still driving on...

 

and on...

 

Can you tell I'm fond of this particular style of postcard?

 

Tomorrow we'll be in Hillsdale!

Fond memories

Out for a walk ... and an announcement.

 

Thursday is one of my days babysitting Wyatt. The last couple of weeks we've been taking the stroller out and walking around my mom and dad's neighborhood.

 

He's always a cheery fellow and he brought along his camera this time too.

 

We saw a cute pair of pugs;

Another kind of bigger doggie;

a helicopter...

 

 

And I saw lots of flowers. 

 

Lilac season is my favorite.

 

I was amazed to see these Trilliums as part of a neighbor's landscape!

 

Trilliums bring back fond memories of my childhood.

 

Oh, the announcement:

 

Walker was offered and has accepted the teaching job in Pennsylvania!

They contacted him the last day of classes.

He's very happy.

Me too.

 

My Day

A little slice of my day...

 

 

 

 

Notice the binky in his hand?

 I asked him to take it out for the picture and he did!

He loves this little basketball hoop and never tires of making baskets.

 

We went to the park.  I helped Wyatt walk the "log".

Notice miss Tori's shoes?

She was up high on a slide when she took this.

 

And its hard not to "pose"

 

This is one of the playmobile characters I got for Wyatt.

I named him "uncle Walker" so Wyatt would get used to his name.

  I didn't notice the black eye and the beard until I saw it enlarged here!

 

Tori and I made iced lemon water to cool ourselves.

 She took this photo.

 I just found it on my camera.

a colorful day.

A friend posted her grandchild with PLAY-DOH on facebook.

It got me thinking...Is Wyatt ready for play-doh??

 

A quick trip to Target and the experiment began.

 

I think it was a great success. 

 

 

He loved playing with it. 

 Tori and I made the zoo animals, which he decorated with blobs of play-doh. The snake didn't make it to the photography stage, but it was especially enjoyed...

The nice thing about play-doh is even the older siblings love it.

 

I think grandmas and playdoh go together like peanut butter and jelly.

 

I've been meaning to share the above beautiful duct tape flower that Tori made for me.

 It is on the end of a pen! I love it.

 

 

I have a new project coming up which will be revealed soon, but I needed some special fabric pieces for it.  I went to my favorite discount store (goodwill) and bought the above two pieces of velvet - the green velvet with the decorated lace was a camisole. The purple velvet was a girl's dress.

The fabrics are lovely.

 

The above three pieces came from the "home decorating" department at Goodwill.

Two pillow shams and something that looked like a Christmas stocking but not in the shape of a sock.

Most were half price so everything was very thrifty.

 

Yes, its been a colorful day.

 

Spring Break Day 3

Day 3 was the most exciting of all.

Tori got to have a friend spend the day.

Wyatt adored her friend!

 

Here they are at McDonald's for lunch.

I know.

We mainly went for the big toy.

 

Those girls crawled all through the tubes with Wyatt. He had such an exciting time!

He wasn't afraid of anything.

 

This was fun - a walk-on piano.

Not nearly as exciting as the gerbil tubes though.

 

Coming down the slides! so much fun!

 

Later I had to take him on a stroller walk to get him to settle down for a nap.

 He was so over-excited.

 

We also played lots of hide and seek indoors.

More watercolor painting.

Even Wyatt painted until he decided to turn it into face paint.

I shouldn't have laughed.

I should have gotten a picture of that.

 

Whew! Grandma's tired.

Spring Break Day 2

Not so many photos today, but still a lot of fun...

A trip to the bookstore to play with the Thomas The Tank Engine railroad...

 

a great rainy day activity.

 

Wyatt plays very intensely.

He cried when we left,

 

but only for a minute...

 

Because we were going to see his beloved Great BaPa and Great Grandmama.

They met us at Eagan's for burgers and fries.

We all enjoyed it so much.

 

Tori and I brainstormed a list from the day:

Thomas the Tank Engine

Trader Joe's

Eagan's goop

Legos

French Fries

French Toast

Raisin bread

Calico Critters

Watercolors

 

And this is also Spring Break, but from the week before...

 

Walker and his roommate Isaac at Gettysburg.

They are posing in front of the monument honoring

the 24th Michigan soldiers from Hillsdale College,

Yes, Hillsdale has been there since before the Civil War.

They had a great road trip.

Spring Break Day 1

I've gotten behind on my posts, mostly because of Spring Break.

 

Victoria is on Spring Break, and I offered to entertain her Wed-Thurs-Fri this week.

First thing, we made doughnuts!

With my new Sunbeam Doughnut-maker.

they made us very happy.

 

We painted, made duct tape projects, and went to thrift stores!

We had a fabulous time.

 

We picked Wyatt up at daycare, and went to the park...

 

Tori took this photo.

 

I got this one of her.

 

And Tori took this one of Wyatt.

 

Did I mention we also went to the dollar store

for cool stuff?