Family Gatherings

The Mother's Day Cookout was GREAT!

I made potato salad and coleslaw Saturday.  I baked beans on Sunday.  Joey grilled hot dogs and hamburgers.  The kids brought drinks and chips.  I sliced tomatoes and onions ... set out the buns, ketchup, mustard, mayonnaise, pickles ... along with everything else, buffet style.

 

I insisted that Nathan (my son) and Jeremy (son-in-law) wait on their wives hand and foot ... That made all of us laugh ... I can tell these two men need more practice!  LOL!!!  Then while the Moms ate, the Dads took care of feeding the kids ... a source of more laughter ... Nathan spread wasabi mayonnaise on Fiona's hamburger ... All three of us Moms shrieked, "That's wasabi!" ... He laughed and said, "You ask me to fix her plate and then you all stand around and tell me how to do it ... I can fix this" ... He switched his burger for hers ... Problem solved!

Everyone was laughing and talking at once ... The crowd spilled into the screened porch and the back deck. 

 

I stopped eating to listen to the kids laughing and the Dads teasing them and each other ... The kids are growing so fast, and as young as they are, they sure are smart!  Nathan and Jeremy act like brothers more than brothers-in-law.  They are both high school science teachers so some of their teasing can be nerdy in a cool kind of way ... lol ...

The kids all wanted to sit by Papa Joey.  He has been pretty popular since he taught Hunter (and then, Faith) to shoot a b.b. gun.  Then, he taught Faith how to play a few chords on guitar ... Joey never had kids of his own, so it's fun to watch how he handles three kids talking at once ... I bail him out once in a while ... but I usually don't have to.  He gets better as the kids get older, or maybe the kids get better as he gets older?  LOL ...

 

I rewarded everyone with ice cream ... Fiona (the youngest granddaughter) helped me make ice cream cones and she delivered them to everyone, saying, "Look what I made!"  LOL ... That little four year old sure serve up some pretty good ice cream!

 

The guys took Hunter and Faith (the two oldest kids) "EXPLORING" in the woods down by the creek ... I'm not sure WHY they needed b.b.guns and binoculars, but they did.  I'm surprised they didn't get out the fishing rods too!

 

Fiona stayed up on the porch with me.  We watched for airplanes and boodies (Means birdies - She can't say her Rs ... Her Dad couldn't either ... She'll learn).  I have had some of the deepest, most enlightening conversations with the brightest people, but I don't think any adult conversation beats giggling with a four year old on the back porch!

Tally (my oldest daughter) gave me the neatest bracelet and a frame with pictures of all four Grandkids!  Beautiful and thoughtful gifts ... But the sweetest gift was ...

 

Fiona had been walking around all day saying, "I'm pretty" ... She was wearing a "geen" (green) dress with "puppple" (purple) flowers and "puppple" (purple) flip flops and she did look pretty darn cute.  We were all in the living room visiting when she hollered (to be heard above every one else, of course), "You're pretty!"

 

I laughed and said, "Yes, Miss Fiona, you are pretty."

 

She said, "No MeeMaw ... YOU'RE PRETTY."

 

Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww

 

Tally, Adrian (Fiona's Mom) and I all exchanged that, "Isn't that just precious? look.  Now, I'll never make the cover of any magazine but to one little four year old, I'm pretty!

 

Happy Mother's Day To Me! 

 

An afternoon with the grandkids gave me even more appreciation for these grandchildren stories ... because kids really do say the darndest things! 

 

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A woman and her grandson, whose face was sprinkled with bright freckles, spent the day at the zoo. Lots of children were waiting in line to get their cheeks painted by a local artist who was decorating them with tiger paws.

"You've got so many freckles, there's no place to paint!" a girl in the line said to the little fella. Embarrassed, the little boy dropped his head.

His grandmother knelt down next to him "I love your freckles. When I was a little girl I always wanted  freckles, she said, while tracing her finger across the child's cheek. "Freckles are beautiful!"

The boy looked up, "Really?"

"Of course," said the grandmother. "Why, just name me one thing that's prettier than freckles."

The little boy thought for a moment, peered intensely into his grandma's face, and softly whispered, "Wrinkles."

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A grandmother was telling her little granddaughter what her own childhood was like. "We used to skate outside on a pond. I had a swing made from a tire; it hung from a tree in our front yard. We rode our pony.  We picked wild raspberries in the woods."

The little girl was wide-eyed, taking this in. At last she said, "I sure wish I'd gotten to know you sooner!"

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Our five-year-old son Mark couldn't wait to tell his friend about the movie we had watched on television, "20,000 Leagues Under the
Sea."  The scenes with the submarine and the giant octopus had kept him wide-eyed.

In the middle of the telling, my husband interrupted Mark, "What caused the submarine to sink?"

With a look of incredulity Mark replied, "Dad, it was the 20,000 leaks!!"

 

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A grandmother was surprised by her 7 year old grandson one morning.

 

He had made her coffee. She drank what was the worst cup of coffee in her life. When she got to the bottom, there were three of those little green Army men in the cup. She said "Honey, what are these army men doing in my coffee?"

Her grandson said, "Grandma, it says on TV, "The best part of waking up is soldiers in your cup!"

 

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May your own life be filled with the laughter of children.