Playdate Summer 2018 Begins

We have sure had some wild and woolly weather this week.  I'm doing a reading camp on M, T, W mornings.  Giddy-Up, Missy Bugg and Mr. Smiley have joined me. Miss Bugg is my helper, along with Rae , Jenna Kyle and a few other sweet friends from school.

After we said, "So long," to the other campers, we had lunch.  It had started pouring by then and was kind of dark.  The morning campers create a woodland mix for snacks that includes sticks (pretzels) and fairy pillows ( marshmallows) and Giddy-up mentioned that you could put a fairy pillow on a stick and roast it. So, we did.

Then at one o'clock, my other gramerlings and friends started rolling in.  After years of trying to work out a visit,  a sweet friend and her six littles made it to playdate.  She played here with my kids as a little girl. It was so great to have her share a Playdate with us. I hope her mama will get to come visit as well.  

The first order of business was to get the tee shirts painted.

Next up, the much loved spot on the property- the creek.

This once held a practically perfect brachiopod and we still love looking for them.

 Things change so fast don't they? This darling girl was one of my first little playdaters and now she's Mr. Smiley's good buddy.

 And back in the day, this was her partner in crime and for some reason, that they are so grown up , but can be playful and laugh, makes me tear up.

 I don't know how in the world they grew up so fast.

 So very many cuties.

 They just play and play and play and it warms my heart.

 Some of our miners are quite serious about their creek work.

 This boy is not happy unless he has a hammer, or something equally able to cause some serious damage.

 Then this, really, a concrete deer?  He still needs to take something home from my house and this was the choice object, which required Sydlee and Ol' Henry to help fetch out of the creek and just cracked us all up.

 Always some interesting finds.

Both of my big boys play guitar now, which makes me happy.

 Then there are the things that never change, like story time, snacks with multi fruit snacks.

And play, play, play.

 And Uncle Jimi remains a character.

 And they eat like fattening hogs.

Yeah, I know. Coleslaw is not traditionally served with spaghetti, but I had a bag of chopped cabbage left from Arie's graduation party Saturday and no way I was going to let it go to waste.  They didn't  seem to notice or care at the odd choice of salad.

Thank you sweet Lord, for my people, a place to play, good food to eat and a sunny afternoon.  I love it!