What a fun weekend!!

Another wonderful weekend to write about!  I suddenly can hardly keep up with my life!  Not really.  It just feels good to have things to plan and look forward to and reminisce about. 

But first some things around the house that are making me happy.  My indoor plants at the front kitchen window are just amazing me.   My secret sister at church gave me an amaryllis bulb and a Christmas cactus at Thanksgiving.  The bulb lay completely dormant until recently.  And now it is shooting up so fast I'm sure I could see it grow if I sat and watched it!  The Christmas cactus also decided to bloom now too,  and the peace Lily is sending up new shoots as well.  I'm amazed and delighted!

Of course things are blooming outside as well.  Here's my first hyacinth and a few daffodils.  

On Friday I got the house all ready for guests, cooked a big pot of chili and prepped the things to go with it (lettuce, tomatoes, onions, sour cream, Fritos, shredded cheese), took some of it over to Anthony and Lori for their dinner, went to Ollie's to get some fun books and activities, then met Dick at work at 5:00 when he got finished.  We went to pick up Sammy and Bianca for the weekend.  We were all SO excited!! They had not been here since Mother's Day weekend last year!  

I had bought a book at Ollie's that gave a lot of trivia about each of the 50 states, and as we drove Sammy was reading a lot of things to us, making us guess state capitals, birds, flowers, etc.  We were so rusty!!  

We stopped at an Arby's on the way home.  We had the place almost entirely to ourselves and we had the greatest time.

When we got here the kids were absolutely ecstatic!  You would have thought they had arrived at Disney.  They went from place to place in the house to see if things were still the same.  They were exclaiming things like:  The kitchen!  I love this kitchen!  Is this still the cereal cupboard?  Oh, your tub!  The cot!  I love sleeping on this cot!  Do you still have that little toy guitar? Oh I'm so happy I think I'm going to cry!  The funniest thing was in our bedroom Sammy said, "Remember when I used to sleep on the cot at the end of your bed and your and grandpa's feet were almost in my face?"  And he acted like that was a such a good memory, hahaha!!

Bianca got right to work on the rock painting kit I had gotten at Ollie's.

Sammy could hardly wait to play some of his favorite oldies YouTube songs.  We loved it!  A favorite was "We Are the World" from 1985.  It was so fun to see singers and musicians when they were younger.  We didn't have a TV back then.  He was glad to show it to someone who wasn't already tired of it.  Apparently he plays it a lot, haha!  I'm not sure who was singing when I snapped this picture.  Sammy was lost in the music.

We all stayed up way too late, but it was Friday night and no one had to get up for any reason in the morning.  

But guess who was already up when I came to the living room before 8 AM??  The kids, of course!  They were playing with the marble roller.  We had a very laid back morning.  I made pancakes and sausages for breakfast.  

Bianca painted more rocks, and Sammy painted one of them.  Then she got interested in the coloring books I had bought. 

Sammy was addicted to Connect Four.  He was ecstatic the first time he beat Grandpa!

They each took a turn in our jetted tub.  Crazy time of day for a bath, but they were so excited to get in it. 

We spent the afternoon at two different parks.  First the one nearby that we call Airport Park.

Sammy used to fit into this, hahaha!  Did I say that he is 4'10"??  That's just two inches shorter than I am!!

I just decided to look for a photo of him in that ride at the park when he was little, and I found one!  He was a year-and-a-half old - May 2013!  He used to be a chubby little blond!

From there we went across town to Tudek Park.  I had told them about the horses we had seen the weekend before with Destiny and Alex, so that was the first place they wanted to go when we arrived. 

They had the greatest time feeding grass to a horse. 

Bianca was cracking up because it had snorted right into her hand.  

We were at the park for a long time, because the kids were having such a great time playing with a few other kids at each of the playground areas.  They made up games and had so much fun.  When we left Bianca was really sad that she probably would not see those kids again.  She said, "I wish I would see them at school."

When we got home Dick started a fire and we roasted hot dogs and made s'mores.  

When we came inside the kids showered and washed their hair so they wouldn't smell like campfire in church the next morning.  Then we watched a movie and snacked on popcorn.  Well, some of us did.  Bianca snacked on tomatoes.  I kid you not.  She loves tomatoes, and I had gotten a container of a variety of different colors of cherry tomatoes.  She ate them like candy!  

They got some more Connect Four in before bed.  When Bianca beat Sammy he said, "Just imagine - Bianca beat the person that beat Grandpa!" 

Sunday morning was exciting!  We were having in-person church, and the kids were dressed for it!  There were a number of children there, and they had children's church downstairs.  

One of the things Sammy was so eager to do this weekend was play Monopoly.   I had said we would do that on Sunday, since it was going to rain.  So as soon as we were in the door after church, the kids were calling for Monopoly.  They didn't want to change clothes first either!

It was the craziest game.  I was banker, and I kept getting my personal dealings and the bank dealings confused, so I think I ended up with more money than I should have.  Sammy was gung ho to buy as many properties and houses as possible, but then ended up with almost no cash.  So Bianca, who normally is not a super generous person, was feeling very charitable and kept giving Sammy some of her cash.  We were laughing so much.  

Then we ate a late lunch of chili and all the fixin's and cleaned up and packed all their stuff.  We had root beer floats before we left to take them back home.    What a WONDERFUL time we had with them!  They're at a really fun age.

I need to get to bed.  Two more pictures before I go.  One from Destiny when she had Elizer dressed all cute before they left for an appointment. 

And this evening's beautiful pink sunset.