Sunday, July 15: We started this year’s Camp Grandma’s by picking up Will and Julia
after having spent the night at Belterra Casino where we had gone to see
comedian Don Rickles. It was an hour and a half drive
and when we arrived, they were both still packing because their overnight
guests (Abby and Robbie) had just left. We arrived at our house around 1:00.
After unpacking, we decided
to go to Graeter’s because it was National Ice Cream Day and they were selling
cones for $1.42. We stopped at the Dollar Tree first, then went to Graeter’s,
and brought grandpa home a strawberry sundae.
Julia, of course, wanted to
play school! So we started playing around 3:00 and played every time we weren’t
doing anything else. Sometimes she was the teacher and sometimes I was.
Katie came over later in the
afternoon to pick up two DVD’s of Harry Potter that Will had brought for her.
She stayed about an hour and we all just sat and yakked!
We had Skyline Chili for
dinner at home and then Julia decided she wanted to go to Julif’s Park. Will
wanted to stay home so off we went. There were only 3 other kids there. Julia
played for about an hour.
When we got home, we again
played school. We all had snacks and they went to bed because they had been up
so late the night before.
Monday, July 16: Julia slept until 10:00! She was tired. She had Bob Evans biscuits and
gravy and Will ate a peanut butter sandwich for brunch. We left around 12:30 to
go to Pierce Point Theater to see The
Amazing Spiderman in 3D. We were the only ones in the theater!
We shopped at Kroger for
donuts and other goodies and headed home. We then played school of course until
dinner time. We had chicken strips, fries, and corn. Julia had an individual Banquet
apple pie for dessert (only a ¼ and then she ate the rest for her snack at
night).
We started to play school
after dinner but then Julia spotted
Tuesday, July 17: We picked Katie up around 9:15 and went to
Katie and I spent most of our
pool time each holding onto a float so that Julia could hold on to each handle
and do flips over and over and over! We bought a LaRosa’s pepperoni pizza for
lunch. We stayed four hours and left around 2:00, heading home for showers and
laundry.
We just chilled until dinner.
Grandpa and I had never been to Chick-Fil-A so Scott
and Tammy had sent down a gift card so that’s where we had dinner. YUM!!! We
were too stuffed to get a malt so we went home. Julia
and I then decided to go to Michael’s. She spent $5.00 of her $10.00 on stuff
she liked and I bought her a bright, lime-green tee shirt and 3-D Puffy paints.
Luckily I had a gift card for Michael’s so dinner and crafts were free to me!
When we got home, Julia spent
the rest of the evening playing with Morgan. They sat on our swing drinking
root beer and talking.
Wednesday, July 18: Since we were having company in the early afternoon, I spent my morning
cleaning the downstairs (which I normally do not do during
After lunch, Daniel called
and said he was on his way. He arrived after 1:00 and said that he had driven
his cousin Bennett who had spent the night at his house back to
Our company was to be
Michelle, her son Jason, his two children (Julia 4 and Brandon 1 ½), and her
granddaughter, Emma, 3. Emma, however, was ill so Alex picked her up from
Michelle’s and the rest of them got there around 2:00. Julia, Will, and Daniel
all interacted with the young ones and they seemed to enjoy themselves. Jason
reminded me that I had taught him how to juggle and that he eventually had
learned to juggle while riding his bike. So we got out the juggling bags and he
dazzled us with his juggling skills!
Michelle brought Grandpa a
small apple pie and me some homemade fudge. It was getting ready to storm so
they left around 4:30. I sent Michelle an email later, thanking her again for
the visit and the gifts, and part of her email response was this:
Your grandchildren are so sweet. Jason and the
children had a wonderful visit. Julia was as comfortable as she is at her
own home. Sometimes she can be a bit shy. Your Julia is such a
charming young woman. She was so good with the little ones.
For dinner we had ham,
macaroni & cheese, and corn-on-the-cob. After dinner, I asked the boys if
they wanted to go to Scallywag Tag (it was still raining). They just wanted to
chill and do lots of activities on Thursday. So once again, Julia and I
ventured out shopping. We went to Staples, Target, and of course the Dollar
Tree. We brought home a few goodies for the boys.
Julia can in around 11:00 and
asked me if she should call the boys in. They were sitting on our front porch
with Sydney & Bailey, two of the triplets from across the street. I said
no, of course, and she went to bed. They stayed out on our front porch so I
stayed up as long as I could because I knew they were having fun. At 12:15, I
flipped the porch light once, went to the kitchen and started making coffee.
They didn’t come in. I knocked on the front door, went back to the kitchen to
finish making coffee, and they still didn’t come in. So, I finally opened the
front door and told them that they didn’t pick up on my signals very well. They
all laughed and said they thought the knock was ding-dong ditch or Julia! I
told them it was almost 12:30 so the party broke up.
Thursday, July 20: It poured down rain most of the morning so I figured we wouldn’t be
able to do the go-carts or play putt-putt golf. I fixed French toast for brunch
around 11:00 and then they all took showers. Our first stop was Cherry Grove
Lanes. Julia didn’t want to bowl so only Daniel and Will bowled. It was kind of
funny renting two pair of size 12 bowling shoes! Daniel was off to a good start
with three strikes. Daniel’s scores were 144 and 138 and Will’s were 96 and 83.
Our next stop was Scallywag
Tag. They had a special that if you bought two games, the third one was free so
they each played three games. We had about 20 minutes before their first game
so they each got tokens and played the arcade games.
From there we went to Gabriel
Brothers because Daniel wanted to buy a pair of gym shoes. And then of course
they wanted to go to the Dollar Tree for more candy and goodies.
When we got home, Julia went
across the street and played with Carson and Morgan. The boys chilled until
dinner. Before I fixed dinner, Julia and I went to our ‘spa’ upstairs and she
did my hair and makeup! We had polish kielbasa, fried potatoes, corn, green
beans, pears, and applesauce. After dishes, they all went outside to gather
with the kids across the street. However, they came back in at 9:00 because the
neighbors had to go inside because their parents were out. We watched Wipeout
and the movie Splash.
Friday, July 21:
The boys were up early but I
had to wake Julia up around 10:00. I made cinnamon coffee cake for breakfast.
Julia and I went to the butchers and when we got back, the boys were loading up
the refrigerator with drinks. We left around 12:15 to see some more movies.
Julia and I saw Katy Perry’s Part of Me
in 3D. The boys saw The Dark Knight Rises.
Once again, we ate popcorn and candy for lunch! Our movie got out much earlier
than the boys so Julia and I drove across the street to Kroger and bought the
non-perishables on my grocery list. We then spent some time at Family Dollar.
We went back to the Pierce Point Theater and still had over a half hour to wait
for the boys. I got a message from Kindra that Wes would be able to come and
would be at our house around 5:00.
From the movies, we drove
directly to Eastgate Adventures and they rode the go carts. Julia rode with
Daniel and then they fed the ducks. One the way home we stopped at Kroger in
Cherry Grove and finished the rest of the groceries on my list. When we got
home, Wes was there!
We had planned to go to
Immaculate Heart of Mary’s festival Friday night and I told the kids I would
give them each $10.00 and they could buy whatever they wanted for dinner there.
Will spoke up and asked if he could have a 3-way at our house before he went.
Good thinking, Will! When we got home, Wes was there.
We all followed Will’s idea
and ate at home. He and I had Skyline, grandpa had pizza bread, and the boys
all had chicken strips, BBQ chips, and fresh fruit. Wes decided he didn’t want
to go to the festival and soon, Daniel and Will decided to stay home too, just
like last year.
So Julia and I ventured up to
the festival. We walked around, she played on the playground, and she got a
snow cone and hot pretzel. We hadn’t found any kids games but then I saw a sign
saying kids games were in the gym. They had a really nice setup. You bought
tickets and when you played the game, they gave you tickets as prizes. Then you
could cash them in all at once and get better prizes. Julia played almost every
game they had but found one she couldn’t resist. For one ticket, you got three
balls to roll down a board which had numbers 1’s, 2’s, and 3’s. So the least
you could win was 3 tickets and the most you could win was 9 tickets! She
couldn’t lose of course. It was like her personal ATM. You would think they
would have marked some with 0’s.
She also used some tickets
for face painting (cupcake) and hair painting. She cashed out almost 40 tickets
(she had bought only 8) and even gave 3 tickets to a little girl as we were
leaving. We were there over two hours. I filled up the gas tank on the way
home.
Daniel and Will were across
the street and Julia talked Will into going across the street with her. She
came in later to say that she was going to let Wes pull her loose tooth if it
didn’t come out before she went to bed. But before she went back outside, she
pulled it herself! The tooth fairy here is good for $5.00. She went back
outside after calling her parents and they all ended up playing flashlight tag but
came back in a little after ten.
Saturday, July 21: The final day of campL! Since all four grandchildren were going to be here in the morning, we
saved this morning for their favorite ‘mancake’
breakfast which consisted of blueberry pancakes, bacon, link sausages, eggs,
and potatoes. After breakfast, they showered and Daniel had to leave to go to
work. Grandpa and Will left to get haircuts at Terry’s. Wes and Julia amused
themselves while I cleaned and prepared food for Tammy’s and Scott’s birthday
dinner. I fixed two crock pots of roast beef, cut up the potatoes for mashed
potatoes, made a cheese-broccoli casserole, made a fruit salad, baked a
chocolate pie, and made a cherry cheesecake.
Our ‘guests’ started to
arrive around 5:00 and soon the house was full again with our wonderful family
members. The only two missing were Joe and Daniel who had to work. Hopefully
everyone enjoyed dinner, dessert, and their birthday gifts.
After dinner there was the
usual wiffle ball home run derby and the evening was so pleasant, we sat
outside. Everyone left around 9:00 and another