Memorial Day Weekend - 2010

Thursday, May 27th Bonnie arrived. Claude picked her up at the airport and I stayed home to work on the slideshow of Katelyn's life for her graduation. I was able to finish scanning all the older pictures and have them saved on my computer.

Then Friday I brought my computer up to the breakfast table. Claude brought his laptop to the breakfast table also. Bonnie and Claude worked on genealogy and I worked on setting up the slideshow.

Friday evening Jake arrived and the Marx family arrived. We had chicken salad ready for sandwiches as everyone arrived at a different time. Michael had been on a business trip and came separately from Andie and the kids. He had soccer games to referee in Lexington so he spent Friday night and Saturday in Lexington. He came to Sadieville Saturday evening and Sunday morning. Then spent the remainder of his weekend in Lexington. It was great to have a full house of family again.

Hayden was very happy to have someone else to share his vast store of knowledge of all things dealing with space, solar systems, etc. Bonnie listened carefully to all he could share with her.

Bailey found the pickle picker. It is a little tool that you press one end and out comes some claw-like wires. You put this into the jar of pickles or olives and you can let the claw-like wires grab the pickle or olive and you pull them out of their container to eat. Claude always purchases jars of baby dill pickles for Hayden and Bailey. Bailey made quite a feast out of pickles and chips. She even tried using the pickle picker to take chips out of the Pringles can. Amazingly, she was able to get one out! She did sleep with a 'yucky' bowl in case that magnificent feast didn't settle well on her little tummy.

Our neighbor passed away on Tuesday, May 25th. Friday evening Claude and went to his visitation at the Sadieville Christian Church. Pete was just a wonderful person. He had a prize winning smile and was always cheerful even though his health was really bad. It was a very nice visitation and we appreciated getting to know some of his family a bit.

Saturday morning Claude and I attended Pete's funeral. We wanted to be sure we made it to Evan's Orchard with the kids on Saturday because rain was in the forecast for the remainder of the week. Andie got the kids ready while we were at the funeral and loaded them with Bonnie and Jake in her van and off to Evan's Orchard they headed just before we returned from the funeral.

Claude and I hurried home to change and join the rest of our family at the orchard. Claude called to me, "Sandi, you better come see this!!" I was not sure what to imagine but when I got into the living room, but this was what we found.

It was sort of a Bailey version of Ghostbuster symmetrical bookstacking in the library. I collect turtles and have many around the house. Bailey is tall enough to get to the canned goods in the pantry. There you have the perfect storm of Bailey'dom'. It would have been interesting to listen to her tell the story of what she was playing while she did it, but it was still VERY interesting to find the finished product of her game and just wonder what was going through that tiny noggin'!

We met every one at Evan's Orchard and had a great morning on the playground.

This time the animals were there. Bailey is extremely interested in horses or 'y'ittle ponies. There was a tent with the pony carousel so she and Hayden were able to have a ride. Then Hayden even rode the camel. He just let his body go limp and bounced along with the movement of this lumbering camel.

It was great to have Uncle Jake here for the weekend. At Evan's Orchard Hayden ran him around the wood fence maze and Bailey used his wonderful shoulders to check out the goats. Jake showed his agility by running in the Rat Racers. At the end of a long hot morning at Evan's Orchard, Jake was the perfect shoulder taxi for Hayden to the picnic table for lunch and Bailey had a great place to cuddle and eat her lunch.

This trip to Evan's Orchard the 'corn box' was also open. I just love this play on the old 'sand box'. Hayden managed to take the big ball that is made like an oversized soccer ball and another toy made to throw and create the Planet Soccer and a comet flying around it. The boy does love his study of outer space stuff. Hayden made another birds nest and used corn from the corn box for eggs in the nest. We did go down the slide at least once but the sun was shining on it and it was a little bit hot.

Claude actually got an opportunity to have some quiet time with his mom while watching the grandmonsters play. 

Just before lunch we finished our play by watching the pig races. Hayden is on the left and Bailey is on the right. There were 3 races. This was the little pigs first race of the season. They run for their Oreo cookie treat at the end of the race. Great sport!!

We ended our visit to Evan's Orchard with lunch under the big tent. Hayden made North and South America out of his hot dog bun. Andie got them honey sticks for a treat.
The adults enjoyed the apple cinnamon donuts. Then we were ready to head home for quiet time, blessed quiet time...what a great invention.

Saturday afternoon Papa brought Tiny out and we feasted on smoked brisket, pork tenderloin and some other meat. We had beans, salad and rolls. It's always fun to hear Papa and Bonnie catch up and retell old stories.

At one point in the evening Bailey and I took Tiny out in the back yard. Tiny trotted out to middle of the back yard to do her business. I made a HUGE deal out of how good Tiny was being to go out and do her 'winkle'. Bailey was duly impressed. We put Tiny back in the house and Bailey and I headed for the porch swing. Pretty quick Bailey jumped off the swing and ran into the back yard. She squatted down like she was look for a bug in the grass. I waited a minute and then Bailey turned and looked at me over her shoulder. I asked her what she was doing. Her reply..."I'm doing a winkle."  Thus goeth the lesson from Tiny.

Bonnie would celebrate her 81st birthday while visiting with us. It would not be until the next Saturday but while we had so many of us together and, more importantly, while we had the queen of cake and cupcake decorating with us, we decided to have birthday cupcakes for Bonnie. In the spirit of Memorial Day and Bonnie's Birthday, Andie selected cupcakes decorated like pies. She made blueberry and cherry pie cupcakes. Hayden helped with the mixing and preparing. Then he served Gramma Bonnie her special birthday pie cupcake.

Sunday was just a family at home day. Bonnie made biscuits and gravy for breakfast. We did haircuts. We cleaned the fridge for lunch and dinner. The plan was BBQ'd chicken for dinner but we were all very full and all of us were heading to Michigan Tuesday for Katelyn's graduation so we determined cleaning out the fridge was the best course for that day. Andie brought her new sprinkler for the kids to play in. Hayden assured us it was named Io after a moon for one of the planets. This because it had water spurting out of several places and the moon, Io, has lot of eruptions on its surface. Hayden managed to get several major splinters in his foot. He is just a splinter magnet.

Now, I've mentioned before Hayden's love of studying space. Here are a few pictures to prove his love for all things done with outer space.  You'll see a beach ball with a beach ring around it, chalk drawing of our solar system, Claude & Hayden with the planet Uranus made out of blocks (Did you know??? Uranus rotates differently from the other planets. This is true.), the water sprinkler ball that is named Io after a moon, and the water sprinkler named Io with a hula hoop around it for rings.

Monday was the day for departures. In the afternoon the Marx family and Jake would all leave for their respective homes. Then I hit the washer and dryer to get our laundry done before our trip to Michigan the next day. Monday was also the day my trial MicroSoft software ran out on my computer. I had purchased earlier the permanent version before Bonnie arrived. Monday I spent a bit of time entering my product key and getting the new software going. Then we packed and got our stuff in order to leave for Michigan early Tuesday morning.

It was a full and fun Memorial Day weekend for 2010.