A weekend with the little boys

My upcoming week promises to be jam-packed from beginning to end, and first thing on my long list is to post my pictures from this past weekend with Sammy and Austin.

We met Sam and Jenn at our favorite Sheetz above Harrisburg on Friday evening.  It's so nice to have more daylight for evening trips.  As we headed back home Sammy was fascinated with the long, skinny clouds in the sunset.  He said they were crocodiles and snakes.  

Silly boy!

On Saturday morning we went to an egg hunt-roller skating party at a local roller skating rink.  It was a community event hosted by the Greater Buffalo Run Valley UMC that I am secretary for.  Lori brought Austin too.  I was glad they did the egg "hunt" in a very organized way so that there was no running and bumping into each other.  It was probably boring for older kids, but perfect for younger ones.  Everyone got the same amount of eggs and candy, because each time they went out on the floor they were told how many to pick up.  Sometimes they had to hop like a bunny or flap their wings like a chicken, etc.  

I took this picture of Sammy waiting by the side for the next instructions.  Can you believe how tall and slender he is becoming?  Trying to catch up with the tall and slender Austin, I guess!

After all the eggs had been "found" there was time for the kids to take the candy out of them.  What a stash!  They were delighted.

Then the skating party began.  Neither boy knew how to skate very well, and I most certainly do not, so this was interesting!  What was I thinking??  Thankfully, this skating rink does children's classes, etc, so they had these "walkers" for the new skaters.  Sammy LOVED using it!  He just wanted to keep skating and skating, not even interested in any snacks!   Austin didn't want a walker, but he stayed pretty close to the wall most of the time. 

Near the end Austin was getting much braver and more sure of himself.  So sure, in fact, that he took off in the opposite direction of everyone else, hahaha!

There were snacks and crafts provided.  We sat for a while and mostly ate marshmallow candies and cupcakes and cheese curls.  I had fun with a new friend from my exercise class who was there with her grandchildren.  She took this picture of us, but Sammy was having no parts of it.

The party ended at 12:30, and Lori picked up Austin.  We came home for a nap.

There was a family fun fair being held in the Ag building on campus which we went to later.   I think we missed some of the best activities, but there were a few fun things.  Like this tug-of-war contest between some Penn State athletes and the children.  It was funny - you could see the athletes pretending they were working hard and finally giving up as the children won, ha!

One display area had a little mini-golf course.

There were a lot of door prizes, and even though we got there for just the last hour of the fair, we won a football!  We gave it to Sammy to take home.  He was delighted with it and the bucket that it came in.

In the evening we just stayed home, ate pizza, played with Legos, and watched Ice Age, complete with popcorn.   I had to practice piano for Sunday morning, and Sammy was more than willing to help me with that.

His imagination is alive and well!  Before we had story time on the sofa he packed up his bag and asked Dick where he could hide it, because Captain Hook was coming.  Dick told him it would be safe under the coffee table, and he was satisfied with that.

This was our goodnight selfie for Mommy and Daddy.  

As usual, we went to our two churches Sunday morning.  And as usual, Sammy loved the music.  After the opening songs at Fillmore he said loudly to Dick, "I could hear Mahna!"   The choir did a beautiful arrangement of Jesus Messiah.  When Dick went back to his seat, Sammy said (again loudly), "That sounded great, Grandpa!"  

At Houserville we started out with Praise Is Rising, which is perfect for Palm Sunday.  Sammy sat with me at the piano and held his ears shut.   Afterward he said,  "Mahna, you were really LOUD."  

After church we went to Burger King.  Anthony and Lori dropped Austin off.  Goodness gracious, the place was way too full.  I had no idea it was such a popular place.  We had decided to go there because Austin likes their chicken nuggets.  There were noisy (but very polite) guys from a fraternity filling a number of tables around us, and obviously many of the after-church crowd.  I was glad to leave. 

We brought the boys home for the afternoon.  Sammy was sleeping before we got home despite Austin's efforts to keep him awake.  Austin was sure he himself was not sleepy, so I let him play with his Star Wars Legos quietly on the loveseat.  But it's so hard to play quietly when things need to make explosive sounds all the time, haha!  

After a while he rolled over and fell asleep.  I went to the computer while everyone slept and finalized my music plans for the various church services during this Holy week.  Then I woke everyone up and we started our "return the boys" trip.  As we drove toward Anthony and Lori's house, Austin said, "There's an X in the sky."  And sure enough, there WAS!

We dropped Austin off, then headed to Jenn's parents above Harrisburg.  I sat in the back seat with Sammy.  He had his Easter egg candy on his mind.  But I had brought some GOOD things along too, so we had a little game going - eat a peanut butter cracker, then you get to pick a piece of candy from your bag.  Eat half a banana, then a piece of candy, etc.  So by the time we handed him back to his parents he was all sugared up.  But he had gotten some nutrition in the process!

We had fun hanging out at Jenn's parents' house for a while.  We got to see this little miss.  I got Dick to take this picture of her and me together.  It didn't last long.  She is very attached to her mommy and  daddy, which I keep assuring them is OKAY.  She'll outgrow this stage eventually.  

We were back home by 8:30.  I had worked on emails the whole time we were driving.  I am so thankful for my phone.

In a few days we will be through March.  There has been precious little warm weather so far.  In fact, Saturday was BITTER around here.  But I've come to expect that and am trying hard to not fuss about it all the time.  But like everyone else, I will be very thankful for truly warm temperatures.  

Have a good week!