grapefruit bunny

  I woke one morning last week and found that the grapefruit bunny apparently visited our home during the night. I spotted the first evidence of his visit; a single piece of fruit on the kitchen counter.

When I went outside I found a nest of grapefruit resting neatly in my pink lawn chair.

Then I discovered a trail of grapefruit leading to the grapefruit mother ship....

33 days

T and E went home with their mom and dad after 33 days at "grandma's house". It been very quiet and clean 'round here the last two days.

water babies

Yes Betsy, you are right in thinking that much of our play includes water...with the temps well into the nineties most days water play is necessary to be outside without melting. Yesterday we spent most of the afternoon in and out of the "pool".

savers

On my way to visit the dentist this week I stopped by my favorite second hand store. While wandering through the scattered toy aisle I happened upon a little Radio Flyer trike for only 7 dollars (minus my 30% off coupon). We had found a scooter for T the week before but E was still wheel-less. I snatched up the three wheeled-bargain then realized I would need to look for something for T. She and her mom have been baking together in my kitchen so when I saw the cupcake apron (marked 14 cents....someone in the back must have been having a creative day) I knew I had a winner.

E is still a little cautious with his bike and T is still trying to remember the word apron (she calls it ribbon when she can't come up with the word) but both are delighted with their gifts.

silly lily

Lily's been short on lovin' the past few weeks....
to make it up to her I bought her a doggie freezer bone.
I put chicken broth inside, froze it overnight and she had a nice cool treat today.

desert blooms

Yesterday morning the kid's mother was here for get out of bed-time. I took advantage of the opportunity to walk around the yard and look for pretty blooms to photography. I found the pomegranate bush out front...




...the Palo Verde blooming in the dog fence...



and a delicate violet bloom in the greenhouse.

head 'n shoulders

I grabbed my camera yesterday morning when E sat down where the morning sun was creating at natural backlight. He was playing with a new toy his daddy sent. The talented puppy sat almost unnoticed for a week or more until a few days ago when E discovered how to manipulate the push button in the paw to skip forward to the song he likes. Now the puppy is toted around the house filling the air with the knee and toe tapping tunes.

outrageous grace

Our dance team had been asked by Women's Aglow to dance to their them song, Outrageous Grace by Godfrey Birtill. Because of the Passover outreach last weekend we didn't have a chance to meet together to choreography the song until Monday of this week. We worked on Monday evening and again on Thursday then met at the conference center early on Friday to look at the space and make last minute adjustments. The song is BIG and celebratory and called for pulling out all the stops. It was way different than all the dances I have been a part of since coming to Arizona and the first that I've been really excited about. Abba bought the choreograph, dancers, and props together perfectly, as He always does when we rely on Him. The result, in the words of one of the Aglow board members, was "Over the top". Jay had two cameras videoing. One on the core group and one off to the side where I spent a good portion of the dance using streamers and big "Angel wing" flags. I'm hoping he can splice the two together to give a complete feel and we can post on YouTube.

Praise YaHWeH for working through us to bring this visual reminder of the enormity of His grace to the women of Aglow.

decisions

I told T she could pick out one thing at Savers, the second hand store we visited this week. First she spotted a purple TY bear. When we reached the shelf overflowing with stuffed toys she exchanged the bear for a small Micky Mouse character. She stuck to that decision even after we found a Veggie Tale character (Jr Asparagus,I believe). Veggie Tales are her favorite movies and she has continually admired my Larry the Cucumber toy. Micky Mouse retained his status through the toy section and the remainder of the store until we entered the shoe aisle on the far side of the store. T spotted a pair of pink and purple "flit flots" and the Mouse plummeted. Apparently she has been admiring the "flit flots" of the big girls in her life. Technically they are probably a tad too big but that was a minor flaw, easily overlooked.

For T it was love at first flit.

hunger games

E loves to eat. Meal time is one of the bright spots of his day.....


But not this morning. This morning we had the battle of wills.

It all started with three slices of apple. I showed E an apple and a pear and he happily pointed to the apple. He likes apples. He ate apples yesterday. But not today.

Maybe it all started first thing this morning when he woke up. He called for Mama and when he saw me coming instead of his mom he threw a tantrum. So when I put the three apple slices in front of him he took one small bite and then refused to eat anymore. I retrieved apple slices and parts of apple slices off the floor multiple times, washed them off and put them in front of him again. Two hours later he finally decided that he would eat the apple, then happily topped that off with a good size serving of eggs.


I felt pretty good about winning this test of wills.

rub a dub tub

We got the big dog bath tub out for a cool dip this afternoon. T had her gymnastic moves and E entertained himself with a bucket on his head.

say cheese

E knew he was cute when he put on the play glasses his MeMaw brought for dress up. He sat quietly and looked at the camera so I could snap this priceless shot.

spring

finger licking good

Yesterday E got up early before his sister.


He has some rough spots during the past two weeks but considering his limited vocabulary to express himself and inability to process this confusing situation it's pretty much understandable. I've been teaching him the signs for "more" and "please" to try to help our communication during meal times. But so far it has been mostly me doing the signing.

We have bonded and I believe he even gave me a kiss the other night after putting on his jammies. T announced after being here 4 days that I was her grandma and although it was a shock to my anti-aging mindset I've accepted the title along with the crop of gray streaks that has been determined to grace my head these days. I've bounced my back tired walking E to sleep twice each day but it seems a small price to pay for falling asleep peacefully rather than screaming oneself unconscious.

The one thing that is sure to make this round-one happy is food.

While we shared a few moments together as the rooster crowed the day up I took advantage of the quiet and the morning sun to document breakfast.


After he initiated getting into the booster seat I started him on some apple juice while I sliced a benana (T's pronunciation).



We finished up the meal with a round of strawberry granola in vanilla yogurt . E prefers to man the utensils himself so sticky things like yogurt work better than items that fall out of the spoon when it is turned upside down.

hop to it

I taught T how to play "hopstock" today.

horse ride mexican style

Our day in Escanada, Mexico was cool and overcast. We debated over the various "excursions" listed on the brochure offered by the cruse line but I hadn't been impressed with the reviews I read online so in the end decided to find our way into town and check things out ourselves.

As I went through security a second time for the street map we forgot to pick up Jay had an interesting conversation with one of the security persons located on the dock. He suggested we ride the 3 dollar shuttle into town rather than walk. This seemed like a good idea to me as I didn't want to tire my feet just getting to the fun. The decision to take the bus was one of our better idea as our "tour guide" on the short journey gave us the sales pitch for the Mexican version of the excursions for the half price the curse line offered. We decided the horse ride along the beach sounded like a fun adventure. Not only did we pay half price but they also took us to two of the other excursion destinations as well as serving us lunch.

Of course the discount Mexican version of the horse ride was bound to have some interesting elements ....like creative horse tack. I didn't get a photo but Jay later told me one of his stirrups was made from a car seat belt.


We rode through a field of pretty wild flowers and then past an interesting roadside second-hand store/campsite type thing on our way to the beach.


Neither of us had ever ridden a horse on the beach before. It was a nice was you enjoy the water on a chilly day.




Thank you Mexican horse for a nice ride on the beach.

water play

Wednesday we went to the dollar store for sand pails in an attempt to curb the need to throw the gravel.

But it got kind of hot in the sun so...

On Thursday we went to the 99 cent store and bought paint brushes for "paint water".

On Friday morning when the temps began to climb we had our first try with the buckets and the brushes.



T had a lovely time painting lines on the pavement. Her favorite is spin around in a circle while painting and then view the resulting mark.



For 15 month old E throwing the water off the brush was his initial strategy but it wasn't long before he figured out a more effective way to get the water out of the bucket so he could move on to exploring other things.

This post dedicated to my mom for her wonderful paint with water strategy.
Just this morning before I was fully awake I caught myself thinking,
I need to call mom and talk to her today.