It's Girls Week - Elena and Malea Visit - Days 5&6

Thursday - We are on day 5 and it is time to play at home.  Ket;s start out with  some play time.  After loading my fingers with toys -- Malea wants to do the same.  Meanwhile, Elena has found a puzzle to work on.  The last time she was here she had to have help doing it but not this time.  It takes her about a half an hour but she does it all by herself then comes to show us.  Awesome.

Elena wants to make some cookies and Grandpa has selected oatmeal raisin so let's get to work.  Malea and I are staying in jammies -- isn't that best?  I let her do the mixing of each stage and then voila -- we have a dough.  Using bar stools as mini tables lets her work on placing her cookies on the baking sheets without me freaking out that she will fall of the step stool.  It's a win-win.  She works very hard to make them all the same size as Malea and I just sit back and watch.

They are ready to go into the oven and soon the house smells oh so good.  Waiting is the hardest part.  She turns on the light and both girls snuggle down to watch them bake.  I grab Malea and go off to get us both dressed.  We are going to go to the craft store when the cookies are finished.  It's time for some creativity today.

Guess what?  They are finished and don't they look awesome?  She did a great job.  After she gets a second batch ready and into the oven, Grandpa gets his treats hand delivered and then the girls get to have their reward as well.  I would show Malea, but she didn't like hers and I was too busy cleaning her up to take a picture.



We opt to give Grandpa a small break so I take both girls to JoAnn's with me.  Oh man is that a mistake.  The minute I put Malea into the cart she goes ballistic and refuses to calm down.  I remain steadfast and feel sorry for the other customers in the store but after about 10 minutes, she finally quiets down.  My my, what a temper.  Actually when we rounded a corner and another child around her age was sitting quietly in a cart watching her, she stopped screaming.  Hmmm.  Perhaps this isn't so bad after all.  Elena picks out a little tea set to paint and a night light to decorate while Malea gets a sticker book and a mask/fan to color.  We are set.  Time to go.  Once home, the tea set is chosen to be the first project and Mister and I set to covering the area as the box says "paint is permanent" -- really?  On a child's project.  Goodness.   Malea is off to bed and Missy is painting away.  The house is quiet.  Nice.

For the afternoon romp we have chosen a playground and are on our way when Malea spots one out the car window and starts saying, "slide, slide, slide" over and over.  I tell Grandpa and he turns around.  It is indeed a park with a playground and one that we have not been to before.  Good eye Malea.  It is starting to get warm out but we stay for almost an hour and the girls have bright red cheeks by the time we depart.

I have a phone conversation with Jen and when I hang up, I look over at Mister and see this.  Silly Grandpa.

It is time to go as the girls are all played out.  I laugh as Malea says, "bye slide" as we walk away.  So cute.

As we are driving back to the house, I spot two very large birds on top of a home and ask Mister to stop and see what they are.  We turn around and park so that I can get out and take a picture or two.  We think they are turkey vultures -- this is only a few blocks from our house.  Interesting.

As we are going into the house, I spot this on the pavement.  I missed it yesterday.  Love it.  Time to start dinner, baths, and down time.  Another day is in the books.

Friday - The Arboretum is our destination this morning and we want to be there when it opens so everyone is busy preparing for that.  Today is picture day.  Gotta get these shots in when we can and let's hope we have willing participants.  This entry will be mostly about the pictures until further down.  Enjoy the photo shoot with us.  Please click on the shots to enlarge them as I cannot make them all full size.  We start out with a fantastic series of Elena -- yay!

And this last one - oh my does this show personality or what?

We move to another spot and try again - let's add a sister.  We can't do Malea alone as she sees Elena and moves towards her -- never any distance between them.  We only get Elena alone when we hold Malea.

Here is the series taken on the rock wall:

And this last one --- ah - so sweet.

From here we move over to the Magnolia Glade and let the girls wander around while Mister and I each have a camera and catch as many moments as we can.

"I did it." Said after she crossed the rocks in the stream.

It doesn't take long before Malea just goes right into the water.

Giving us this series:

And oops

We take a snack and bathroom break before continuing on.   The restroom is near the rose garden and Elena stops to "smell the roses along the way."  Perfect.

When we return, Malea's good humor has vanished and she now wants her blanket.  I would prefer that we don't drag it around the gardens, but she wins and soon has it in hand.

Now for some fun --- there is a petting zoo and face painting today in the meadow so off we go.  Malea loves the bunny and stays with it most of the time.  Elena makes the rounds and then is ready for face painting.  I tell Grandpa where we are going as neither of us is interested in even attempting to get Malea's face painted.  Goodness no.  He stays at the petting zoo and we cross the lawn towards the face painting booth.  It only takes her a few seconds to choose what she wants and since there isn't a line, she hops right up and settles in.  Five minutes later -- yep he is THAT quick -- we are on our way back to Grandpa.  It appears that Malea has been let loose and is on her way to us at the same time.

Oh -- and the painted face of course.

Our time here is coming to an end so we take the shady path towards the exit.

The misters come on just as we are walking through, making the whole area a giant cloud of fog.  The girls climb up onto a bench to check it out and I love the backdrop.  However, this is one instance where the camera just doesn't do justice to how beautiful it really was.  Ah, the eyes are just still supreme.

One last snack break and we are on our way.  Mister goes back quick to snap one shot of the flowering tobacco that we have been keeping an eye on the past few week.  I certainly didn't expect this type of flower.  Love it.  It has been a great morning here, but time to go home.  We need a good lunch and some naps today.

Speaking of naps, Malea wants Grandpa to lay with her.  As he does, she will look at him and then lay back and make a snoring noise.  She will then say, "sleep Grandpa."  It is so funny and they will lay there for quite awhile before she tires of the game.

Malea wakes before Elena today so I get some fun time with her to color her mask.

I think she does a pretty dang good job.  We work together on it and as I color an area, she colors over it.  For some reason her half is no longer interesting to her.  Why is that?

Miss Elena wakes and wants to do her butterfly night light so all the protective supplies are brought back out and the painting commences.  Grandpa helps and she soon has a cute night light to replace her flashlight at home.  Somehow neither of us gets a picture of the finished light though.  Grr.

I had promised the girls that if they were good today we would go for ice cream after dinner and thus a promise made must be kept.

We end our day at Sonic with ice cream cones and wonderful mess.  It's a good thing we have bathing on the agenda tonight.  Time to scrub that face clean Elena.  It has been another wonderful day in Grandparenting Land.  I do so love this time.