A weekend of great weather and grandkids

Veteran's Day was a school holiday so that gave us two non-school nights for sleepovers, one for girls and one for boys. The girls always bring along friends.

Our weather has finally cooled down into the lower 70's. In Arizona that is enough to bring out the winter coats.

It also means that we leave the doors wide open and the kids are mostly outside.

The garden plants are so happy. They are making colorful blooms rather than merely surviving. Grandpa Glen lets the girls pick all the flowers they want to decorate their little garden nooks. This visit they were playing "Boxcar Children." They created a space of their own next to the greenhouse.

I love how smart and capable they are becoming. Ruby brought the book with her. Tradition has Heather reading aloud as the three of them cuddle up to go to sleep in the guest room brass bed. It warmed my heart to hear Ruby taking turns with Heather and reading aloud from "Boxcar Children" as well. Soon Sadie will be able to take her turn as well. She loves school.

Grandpa Glen always has some new gadget type toy to share.

This time is was bubble blowing guns.

Which also light up. The girls loved them!

They put two fingers up, not because they are two but because it is 11/11/11 and the clock behind them just turned to 11:11 am.

The boys stayed the next night. Toby needed Raymond and Henry to help set up the Playmobil. TJ turned teenager on us this month and he's not so much into playing anymore. He'd rather watch movies, listen to music, and things like that. I still find it hard to believe that I have a teenage grandson!

Saturday morning, Toby and I were off to his soccer game.

We met up with his dad and Julianna.

She may be our next soccer player. The rule about sleepovers at grandma's is that you have to be fully potty trained. It pretty much breaks my heart when I hear Julianna say, "Nana go to grandma's, too?" I'm happy to report that she is making progress with the training.


They didn't win but they didn't seem to care much because there were still treats.

Saturday afternoon, TJ and Toby helped grandpa plant out his flower bed along the wall of Italian cypresses. Toby says that he wants to do that every Saturday. Did I mention that he loves Home Depot and Lowe's? When we dropped off TJ that evening, Toby packed up his Sunday clothes and hopped back into the car with us. He decided to go to church with Grandpa Glen and help Grandma Laurel prepare for our joint birthday party Sunday night. More about November birthdays next post.