Keeping the grandkids...

Tom and I kept Ryan and Lily for Jen last evening while she attended a program at church. The kids were terrific. When they arrived, Tom was out picking up pizza for dinner. Lily told me she was hungry. She spotted the bunch of bananas on the counter and told me she wanted two (!). I reminded her that Grandpa was bringing home dinner, so she agreed to eat just one..in the meantime, Ryan called out from downstairs, asking if I had any chocolate chip cookies left from last time they made them. The answer was 'no' so he asked if we could make more. Why not? So Ryan and Lily and I got the ingredients together, combined the dry ingredients--when Grandpa arrived with the pizza. We all went down to the family room to share in the goodies. Afterward, the kids played a little bit of soccer together. Then I went upstairs to finish to cookies. Ryan came along, but Lily asked Grandpa if she could play on his computer. It was nice working alone with Ryan--we don't get that chance very often. Things went pretty well. Ryan likes turning the mixer on and off. He also likes to break the eggs...the first egg went well. I have him crack them into a small bowl first, just in case. The second egg was a tad more challenging. When he went to crack it, he looked like he was going to smash it too hard. I said 'easy!' so he tapped it more gently. Unfortunately, the egg only cracked a little. Ryan pushed his thumbs in hard and the egg seemed to explode! We both laughed out loud ~ it went on Ryan's pants, my blouse, and the counter top-where it ran down the front of the counter to the cabinet and the floor. And there was still egg in the bowl! I fished out the shell, cleaned up the mess and when went on with the mixing. The rest of the cookie-making went well, except when I missed the sound of the timer on the last trays in the oven...they burned to a crisp! But I was busy playing "The Last Straw" with Ryan, and we were having so much fun that it was worth it! Ryan is learning how to be a good sport, and he was a joy to play with. I won the first game, and he grinned at me. I told him I was so pleased to see him being a good sport and asked if it wasn't more fun that way? He said 'yes, it's much better than rolling around on the floor crying~' I have to agree with him, although I cannot say I actually remember him doing that! The second game went his way completely--he used all his blue straws and decided we each needed to take on a different color so we could continue playing. He did very well, and I didn't! I ended up with all the straws of three colors and Ryan was almost out of his last set of straws--when Mommy arrived and was in a hurry to get the kids home to bed. We agreed that Ryan won that game and he went home without too much fuss~but I know Ryan would have preferred to trounce me properly!

I saw them out to the car and told the children I would wave from the dining room window. Ryan wanted me to wave from outside. Mommy pointed out that it was so dark they would not be able to see me waving. So we agreed I would wave from the dining room window with the light on--and then, Ryan said, "you can go outside and wave from the driveway!" I love it that my grandchildren think I can do anything. :)

My Birthday

Yesterday was my birthday, and God chipped in on the celebration with a beautiful day. After church, Tom and I headed home to watch the Ravens game. The Ravens were not as interested in celebrating my birthday....so sad. During the day, Tom contacted the kids to invite them out to dinner this evening. Normally we would have celebrated with dinner at home, but Tom is working on the wiring and things are not conducive to entertaining at the moment. :) Both kids and their spouses arranged to come, and we went to Silver Spring Mining Company. We have always had good experiences there, but not so much last night. The food we got was really good, but several of us did not get what we originally ordered--the manager came out to tell us the second batch of crabcakes they had just opened was not up to par and he was not willing to serve them to us...while I appreciated his unwillingness to serve us substandard food, that was just the beginning. Jay and I had both ordered crabcakes, so we switched to the steak special. Four of us at the table were supposed to get white cheddar cheese mashed potatoes with our meals--we didn't. No explanation, just substitutions. Later found out they ran out of the potatoes. They also ran out of several desserts and hot fudge and whipped cream! It just seemed all evening long the waitress was apologizing for something...and the service was slow, too. I still enjoyed myself very much. I'm not about to let that ruin my time with my family. It was lovely to spend the evening with them. The kids were really good, and fun to have at dinner. Jen and family gave me a game of BananaGrams (among other things), and we opened the bag of letter tiles at the table while we were waiting and several of us made words to amuse ourselves. Lily's word was the longest-she lines up three rows of letters one after the other and had fun doing it! I really enjoyed the entire evening. Thanks, everyone!