Grace

I can't believe it but Grace will soon be 11 years old.  Her birthday is coming up next week and in keeping with the tradition we started with the grandkids, they spend overnight and a day at our house.  I like having them one at a time because we can concentrate on getting to interact with them individually and treat them special.  Next week is going to be busy so we scheduled to have Grace earlier.  This past Monday I left work early and drove up to their house and brought her back.  She requested barbeque chicken pizza for dinner and helped me make it.  It was delicious! 

The kids like to watch videos when they're here and I like to sit and watch with them.  The one we chose this time was Anne of Green Gables.  Grace had not seen that movie yet, although she was somewhat familiar with parts of the story.  I believe they have an audio recording of that classic novel.  At bedtime, I read Uncle Remus stories to Grace before we went to sleep.  It's quite humorous to read about the adventures of Brer Rabbit and Brer Fox, and it's fun to giggle together over their antics.  We slept in the upstairs apartment.  It's so quiet and peaceful up there.

The next morning, Grace and I made blueberry pancakes.  She's a wonderful helper in the kitchen.  While we were eating breakfast, Andy somehow got on the subject of my knowing Pa. Dutch words.  I started teaching Grace some phrases:  "Kannst du micka funga?" and "Mach mi sehr böse!"  Then Andy got in on it and started mentioning words he had heard me say over the years, like "stroblich," "all verhudled," and I'm not sure what all.  (and by the way, I'm not sure of the correct spelling of these words since Pa. Dutch is a dialect of German, which makes it difficult to trace.)  Well, during this conversation, I took a pile of pancakes off the griddle to remove to the table.  In the process, I dropped them all on the floor.  Then Andy, as he is so famous for, had to point out that the pancakes were stroblich.  He loves to get me going by assigning the wrong word to the situation.  Stroblich means messy hair.  So we all ended up laughing hilariously to think that the pancakes were hairy and their hair was messed up.

Speaking of messy hair, I am always happy to do Grace's hair in French braids.  It was one of my favorite things about having 3 girls...lots of hair to braid.

After breakfast, Andy had an electrician here to help him fix an electrical problem that we had lived with for about 5 years.  While he was busy with that, I took Grace shopping for a new dress.  We went to Kohl's and tried on 6 or 7 dresses.  What fun!  And we found one that was just right:  beautiful colors, with a crinoline slip, perfect length and a cute little sweater.  We got the dress for 55% off the original price although I always contend that Kohl's purposefully marks their clothes high so you think you're getting a good deal when they're on sale.

But doesn't she look beautiful?  I'm sorry about the fuzziness of the picture.  I took this with my cell phone, and I'm not very good at holding it super still.


Back at the house, we watched some more of Anne of Green Gables, had lunch, played Free Cell on the computer.  Then Andy took her to the church to ride bikes in the parking lot and play in the gym.

We left our house around 3:30, picked up pizza, then ate dinner with the rest of the family when we got there.  Little Claire is growing nicely.  I got to hold her and love on her a little.

Happy birthday, Grace.  You're growing into a lovely young lady.  It's a pleasure to have you as our granddaughter.