Grandchildren – Page 7 – Valerie's Voice

Who’s Listening?

One afternoon while in Colorado, my husband and I took the grandchildren to the sandy shores of the pond near the apartment complex where they live. It was a sunny, warm day, with temperatures in the 70’s.

A morning view of the cabana’s from the shore.

After awhile we decided to rest in the shade of a cabana near the water. There were four covered areas, divided by sailcloth and each area had two lounge chairs and a small table. It was inviting, and a lovely spot for a respite from the sun.

A view of the cabana’s from the back…overlooking the water.

We each reclined on the lounge chairs, with one grandchild. We were happy and I said out loud, “It would be fun if someone could capture a picture of us.”

A few minutes later a kind woman popped into our area and said, “I heard you wanted your picture taken!”

She had overheard us…she was tucked in a different cubby of the cabana. She graciously took our photos, telling us to “shake it up” for one of them. It was fun and felt so welcoming.

She was a cheerful woman who was visiting her son, who lived in the complex. But, most interesting is that her husband was on a plane to Malawi, Africa on a mission trip…Malawi is a country bordering Mozambique – we’ve been there. She said she had been to Africa several times.

The next day we were at the playground when she walked by. She told me her husband made it safely to Malawi. I introduced her to my daughter-in-love. She gave her a big hug and told her how much she loved Africa and they visited for awhile.

I was happy for this connection but felt sad knowing this woman was leaving that day to go back to her home a couple hours away. Of course she will return to visit her son, and when she does I hope she and my daughter-in-love connect again.

Home Again

We arrived back to an empty house, after helping our son and his family move out of our home, to Colorado. We miss them.

A few haikus about our trip…

Adventure awaits
To Colorado they move
We will miss them so.

Our own caravan
Three vehicles together
All heading westward.

The view of the beautiful apartment complex where our son and family have settled.

Unload, unpack, rest
Moving is a lot of work
They are settled in.

Hiking in the park
The snow starts gently falling
Spring in the Rockies.

The spring/winter beauty of Rocky Mountain National Park.

Three moose on the move
Catching a glimpse through the trees
Many elk and birds.

A few of the many elk we saw in the park, and in town.

Visiting good friends
Retired and moved away
Fun to reconnect.

The Twin Sisters, a view from Ft. Colins, CO. Photo by Jayne L

The house is quiet
The children have moved away
It feels so empty.

Our last day with the grandchildren before their move to CO.

April Snow

When temperatures were near 70* on Monday we, along with many Minnesota hopefuls, thought winter as over…the grass had hints of green and all the snow had finally melted on the north side of our house, which is the front side, and always the last side to surrender the snow.

The snow melted and the bicycles and tricycles came out.

With the warm temperatures we were happy to be outside. We cut down our prairie grass in the backyard and the grandchildren enjoyed riding their bicycles on the clear sidewalks.

Later that same day I heard the forecast for blizzard conditions and it was hard to believe…until heavy snow started falling and accumulating quickly on Wednesday afternoon. We tucked ourselves safely in the house while the snow kept falling into the night.

The day before this snowfall our deck was clear of all snow…

Early the next morning I wanted to go outside for a walk and check out the effects of the snowstorm. I asked Zoey, our four-year-old granddaughter, to go with me. Her boots were packed away since we thought there would be no more snow, so I found two plastic bags…

I bundled her up, then put plastic bags over her shoes. I was planning to walk in the street, not play in the snow, so I thought the good old-fashioned trick with the plastic bags could work. And it did.

Improvised…plastic bags over the shoes instead of boots.

We were walking down the street toward the park when we heard thunder. This must be what they call thundersnow. We could not hear it while we were in the house. Soon the winds picked up and freezing rain began pelting from the sky, stinging our faces. It happened quickly. We turned around and went back home, once again settling ourselves inside for the day. We baked cookies.

Additional photos:

We woke up to our windows covered with snow.

Same window from the outside…snow stuck to the windows and siding.

A bouquet of beautiful white tulips sitting on our kitchen table inside, competing with the white snow and evergreens outside our kitchen windows.

Easter Eggs

It’s been awhile since I’ve colored eggs for Easter, but with our grandchildren here of course we had to do it. I hard boiled 11 eggs and ate one so that left us with 10 eggs. 😉

I plopped the tablets from the egg decorating kit into cups of vinegar and made several bold, color dyes to chose from.

The kids (of all ages) had fun drawing on the egg with a clear wax pencil or crayon, deciding which color to dip the egg into, then watching and waiting, with anticipation, to see how their egg would turn out.

The most unique egg is one our grandson envisioned and had help with the drawing. He has talked about Christmas trees since Christmas…he was so enthralled with our tree…so he wanted a Christmas tree on his Easter egg. O well, we couldn’t have Easter without Christmas.

An egg with Happy Easter written in Portuguese, the other language we hear in our house these days, is another special egg for our basket.

Adding mini-stickers to the dry eggs the next day.

Ukraine is known for their beautiful Easter eggs. I have a bowl full of Ukrainian Easter Eggs. I brought a few home with me from my visits there. These eggs are wood, not the typical, fragile “real” eggs. Ukrainian Easter Eggs are amazing… detailed, intricate, artistic. I took a class on how to paint Ukrainian eggs but I never caught on to the technique. It is an art, and like all art, it usually takes much practice, and some talent.

My Carnival Glass bowl full of Ukrainian Easter Eggs.

I enjoyed watching my grandchildren having fun decorating their Easter eggs in their own creative way, and their eggs are just as special.

The Super Moon

The modern science building at St. Olaf College.

When I learned the full, “snow moon” this month was a super moon I thought it might be fun to take the grandkids to see the moon from the top of Regent’s Hall at St. Olaf College. Not only would the four flights of stairs give them an outlet for some of their energy, it would be fun to see the view from the top atrium with three walls of windows. We piled in our cars and drove to St. Olaf at the scheduled moonrise time, walked along the winding sidewalk up to the building, and then inside climbed stairs up to the top floor.

4th Floor Atrium at Regent’s Hall, St. Olaf College.

When we reached to 4th floor we looked East but we couldn’t see the moon. What I hadn’t thought of was other buildings being in the way of the moonrise. Argh… However, we went to a different area and were able to see the beautiful moon after it rose.

The grandkids looking at the full moon. It’s always hard to capture the beauty of the moon, especially with an iPhone.

Although we didn’t see what I thought we would see, it was still a fun adventure. There were other displays to look at: several Owls and a large pileated woodpecker in glass cabinets, and a turtle in an aquarium.

In one display case there were a couple pieces of artwork. I particularly liked the one with a lone bird sitting in a tree with peach colored blossoms.

After we walked down the hall to draw on an old-fashion chalkboard for a bit, I came back and noticed a second image in the picture… a woman’s face. It was an optical illusion. Very clever!

The piece on display is credited to a St. Olaf student, Corinne Kieras. She’s a Psychology and Computer Science Major. Her piece is called Nature vs. Nurture. I have included a photo of her artist’s statement.

Valentine’s Day Tradition

Projects my granddaughter has been working on for Valentine’s Day.

I have written about our Valentine’s Day dinner tradition before. It began years ago when our boys were young. I wanted to make the day special and start a tradition, hopefully one that would last. I decided to make heart- shape French toast…which over the years morphed into waffles because I found an electric waffle maker that made heart-shape waffles!

I have made this dinner for many Valentine’s Days over the years. Even after the boys left home, I would make it for Gary and me. The tradition has lasted and it continues…

This year we have our grandchildren living with us so I will be getting out the red tablecloth, using fun Valentine’s Day napkins, and making heart-shape waffles for them. I think they will love it – just as my boys did when they were little.

Happy Valentine’s Day!

A Winter Morning

After the deep freeze last week, the temperatures climbed on Saturday and we were able to get outside to play.

The temperatures were just right for cross-country skiing in the morning at Riverbend Nature Center in Faribault, until late morning when the temperatures started rising and the snow was becoming sticky.

A beautiful morning for some cross-country skiing.

When we got home from skiing we thought would be a good time to build a snowman with the grandchildren. We were already in our winter gear, so we bundled up the grandkids and brought them outside to play in the snow, and to build a snowman…finally. They have been waiting and waiting for the “right” kind of snow to build one.

Building a snowman…grandkids with “grandma-papa.”

We brought out the scarf we had bought in anticipation of building a snowman, and used a carrot for his nose, rocks for his eyes, and branches for his arms and his smile.

Finally, a snowman…and we used the scarf we bought.

The kids were very excited to play in the snow, and we were very excited to play with them, and also cross-country ski.

It was a wonderful, winter morning.

Socks and Such

Last week I was able to attend a gym session for toddlers with my 20-month-old granddaughter. It was a delight to see her playing in the room full of appropriate gym gear. There was organized time with an instructor, along with casual playtime. During the guided activities moms (and some grandmas) and children sat around in a circle on the floor entirely covered in gym mats. Of course we had to take off our shoes off to walk into the room.

My mended socks with even more holes. Tossed out.

I do have a drawer full of wonderful socks. I also received two new pairs this Christmas, so why did I put on my old SmartWool socks that… just last week… I mended the toe? (There were a couple other holes in the back that I didn’t bother with.) I am not sure why – when I dressed that morning, for spending time with my granddaughter, I figured I’d have slippers on and she would not see the holes in my socks! I did not know we would be going to the gym. Well, needless to say I was a little embarrassed when we all had to take off our shoes to go into the gym room. Hopefully the young moms did not notice. I will never know. But I did throw those socks away!

And the day continued…

That afternoon, when I got home, I was working on my computer and accepted a download that I shouldn’t have, which caused a few problems that have since been corrected. That was not fun…but that was not all…

I made a great home-made pizza for dinner, and while taking it out of the oven it flipped over, and all the ingredients, including pizza sauce, spilled to the bottom of the oven and on the oven door. What a mess! We turned the oven off, closed the door, found leftovers in the frig (and cleaned the oven a couple days later!)

At that point, I settled in for a cup of tea and an early bedtime. It was fun to spend time with my granddaughter that day, but it was time to put the day to rest…thankfully each day begins anew.

I found some fun quotes on Pinterest….

Every day is a new beginning. Take a deep breathe, smile, and start again.

Every day is a chance to start over.

Amen!

Como Zoo

It had been awhile since I visited the Como Park Zoo. I don’t remember the last time. We took our boys there when they were young, and I remember we had a winter picnic there one year. I have been back to the Marjorie McNeely Conservatory since then, but the date escapes me.

Growing up in NE Minneapolis, going to the Como Zoo was a popular place for field trips at my elementary school. I remember the cages were too small for the animals. Thankfully, they have changed that. I also remember a very large, and very old, tortoise roaming the grounds. According to Como Zoo history posted online, Toby, a Galapagos tortoise, came to live at Como Zoo in 1958. Small children were allowed to ride on Toby’s back. Toby is the tortoise I remember. In 1974 Toby was moved to the Honolulu Zoo, where he still lives today!

Monkey’s are always fun to see at the zoo.

Two other cute “monkeys” – Ezra and Zoey

Last week, before Christmas, we took our grandchildren to visit the Como Zoo. It is a nice size, not too big, and it is free. We went to see the monkeys first – a request from our granddaughter. We continued to walk around looking at the other animals including reindeer…how appropriate to see reindeer this time of year. It is fun to see the animals through the eyes of a child…

The beautiful poinsettia display in the conservatory.

We took time at the end of our visit to go into the Marjorie McNeely Conservatory. I particularly wanted to see the sunken garden room which was decked out with red poinsettias, white paper whites, and purple lavender…it was warm, smelled good, and was beautiful to look at.

Lovely to see fresh flowers in the sunken garden.

We all enjoyed wandering through the warm displays of plants in the conservatory. It is a special place, especially this time of year when the weather outside is frightful…

I’m thankful for St. Paul Parks and Recreation Department who maintains the Como Zoo …I will not wait so long to visit it again.

Orchids…always colorful… always spark joy.

Merry Christmas

…The children in each different place will see the baby Jesus’ face

Like theirs, but bright with heavenly grace

And filled with holy light. O lay aside each earthly thing

And with thy heart as offering, Come worship now the infant King

‘Tis love that’s born tonight….

Some Children See Him – Traditional – A. Burt, W. Hudson