“Pink’s my favorite!”

“I like blue.”

Sprinkles on toast are good, too. I said “smile” so she did.

On to haircuts. She kept repeating, “I don’t like a haircut. I don’t like a haircut.” But she sat still and did a great job.

Sister did well, too.

Then we cleaned up.

When haircuts were done, we got down to business. Time to hang the snowflakes in the kitchen! Twelve foot ceilings give us room to suspend three to four foot mirrored garlands with large snowflakes suspended from them. It’s always a hit with our guests.

It was fun to do this with the twins this year. And they LOVE to help! Everything is a big adventure for them. Every time we open another box of decorations, they say “Is this Christmas!?”

Twin2 was fascinated by the mirrored garland and kept trying to see herself in the little mirrors. Don’t you love her hat?

Pa’s little helper.

Mission accomplished!

It’s wonderful to have our son’s family nearby. It’s still odd to hear his voice calling “Mom?” when he pops in to say hi while in town on an errand. There’s a split second when I don’t remember he lives here now! And having the grands over for bits of every day life is great! It adds a lot of joy to our life!

~~Rhonda

After the candles were placed on the cakes, they kept saying, “We need fire! We need fire!”

Have you ever seen anyone cut her ice cream with a knife? Had to have bite-sized pieces, you know.

Fun presents…jump ropes, coloring books, story books, and cookie and brownie play sets.

“It’s for baking!”

We had a great time. The day had been long for me. I was tired today, was having some trouble with pain in my right leg and right arm, and felt a bit over-whelmed by a few things. But my girls worked hard to make things come together. And it was all worth it in the end. We had so much fun. The twins are a hoot! Their excitement is very entertaining, and they make us laugh by the funny things they say. Laughter is the best medicine, right? It was a happy ending to a less than stellar day.

~~Rhonda

This afternoon we’ll see how that goes when she, et al, move into their new home and stay the night.

~~Ma

The bright yellow gold of the hickory tree was beautiful against the blue sky.

DH raked enough leaves to pad the wagon and we took the twins for a ride through the tiny woods and around the yard.

The crepe myrtles are so pretty this time of year. These shrubs and small trees are worth the garden space. They bloom late in the summer season for a long period of time and add wonderful autumn color.

A few autumn violets poked their faces above the rough end-of-summer plants under the apple trees.

The violets weren’t the only spring and early summer flowers blooming. The hydrangeas had a few stragglers, too.

The girls had fun. They climbed the mulberry tree…

and tried to catch butterflies on the asters.

When they got tired of riding in the wagon, they got out and walked for a while.

The Southern Oak behind the house has turned a bright gold this week.

The dogwood near the fenced garden is a particularly gorgeous red.

The beauty of God’s creation is always amazing, even in the waning season of autumn. And now, added to that blessing of beauty in the garden, we have the blessing of our son and his family living nearby. There is always something to be grateful for!

~~Rhonda

These grapes were particularly good. The girls finished them off in record time.

Sometimes the TV is a nice babysitter. A snack of Pa’s good homemade rolls and a nice Richard Scarry story equals quiet in the house. :-}

For a while anyway…

~~Rhonda

Photo by DD#3.

Photo by DD#3.

Photo by DD#3.

Photo by DD#3.

Indoor play is fun, too. Twin1 likes the little brown chair I used as a child. She sits in it at every meal and plays with it between!

Twin2 has the bread dough under control. She thought punching it down was more fun than forming the rolls.

I did a little reconstruction on some of the rolls before they went into the oven, but most of them baked “as is.”

The teddy roll was too hot to eat…so she blew and blew and blew…

They were very good about sharing the teddy roll. No complaints and lots of “I’m sharing!” was announced.

Their parents are due tomorrow evening with the moving truck. Twin2 keeps stating, “I don’t want to go back to my house. I want to stay at Pa’s house!” We’ll see how she feels about it after reuniting with her Mama after six weeks of being apart!

~~Rhonda / ~~Ma

The girlies like long “princess” dresses, so I cut them longer than I might have otherwise. Nice for twirling.

Comfy for curling up on the couch with your Cheerio snack.

Our two-fer.

We had a wonderful time with them and their family this week. Now they’re headed home and the house is quiet. We’ll miss the patter of those little feet, as well as the chatter of those little faces.

~~Ma

Orange is my least favorite color, but there are some totally beautiful orange daylilies. Like ‘South Seas.’

The girls walked through a lot of the east front yard, but decided they had gone far enough on their own steam. So they headed to the garage with Pa and picked up the wagon.

We saw a tiny Summer Azure butterfly. It’s wingspan is only 3/4 of an inch.

We saw lots of daylilies on our garden walk. Like ‘Fooled Me.’

And this polymerous ‘Hyperion.’ A polymerous daylily has more than the usual three sepals and three petals. This one had five each.

A beautiful day for looking at beautiful flowers.

The hosta ‘Sunny Disposition’ is lovely with its bright yellow leaves and its pretty lavender flowers. It holds up to a lot of sun.

For little girls, though, a short rest out of the sun is always a good idea.

“Look, Pa! A mommy bee!”

We passed the fenced garden on the way to the back yard.

In the back yard, the girls climbed the mulberry tree.

And picked raspberries. We have just enough bushes to snack from.

Yummy!

Time to swing with a little help from Pa.

The tiger lilies have opened.

Many of the hostas are blooming right now.

After enjoying the garden, it’s time to go in. We pass a pot of coleus at the back door. If anyone local has other kinds than these, I’d love to have a start. Am willing to trade!

We’ll be in the garden again later. Right now, DH is watching a Tour de France preview show, the twins are playing with the laundry basket full of toy horses, and I’m keeping my leg up for a while. Everyone else went to Six Flags for the day, so it’s pretty quiet here.

~~Rhonda

After washing dishes, their jams were so wet we had to change them again before putting them to bed.

Poor tired Pa. While the girls washed all the plastic we could find, grandpa took a catnap.

Come to find out…this morning our son came downstairs to find the twins washing dishes again. But unassisted this time. Pa was on a 34 mile bike ride (celebrating our anniversary of 34 years of marriage) and Ma was still asleep! The girls got up by themselves, came down and resumed their job.

Today, the twins helped me make pizza for lunch. First, you pat out the dough…

…then spread the sauce.

Pepperoni goes on this end…

…and spinach over all.

Some mushrooms down the middle and some feta on the end of one pizza, sprinkle on the cheese, bake it, then eat it!

After lunch, our younger son and his wife and their friend and her daughter came to visit. The girls shopped the yard for daylilies and hostas. The kidlets played on the playground. Lots of fun, even though it rained a bit.

Off the bed. Tomorrow is a new day of fun with the family.
~~Grandma, otherwise known as “Ma”

The twins picked up with us just as though we were always around.

They love Pa’s homemade rolls.

And Ma had lots of help making pizzas.

They were happily entertained with Ma’s Nook…it wasn’t long before they could turn it on and find “Big Dog, Little Dog” all by themselves.

Pa pulled weeds. The twins took them to the compost pile.

Here’s the cutest basket of laundry I ever saw…

We celebrated Sissy’s birthday while we were there.

And enjoyed blueberry snacks…

Ma made the big rolls and Ma’s helper made the little rolls. She was SO proud of herself!

Much fun was had by all.

~~Grandma…AKA “Ma”