Thanksgiving Weekend

It's been a busy week!  Apollo and I went to the cemetery on Wednesday to change the flowers on Mom and Daddy's grave to poinsettias - good thing since it as rained ever since!  It's our first Thanksgiving without Mom, and we sure missed her - lots of great memories of Thanksgivings past though, especially last year when everyone was able to be here for her last Thanksgiving - a blessing.

On Thursday, Ron and I joined the Siegers for Thanksgiving.  We had a delicious meal and a nice visit.  Amanda/family arrived in Clinton around 5 p.m.  We had potato soup, summer sausage and cheese and some other munchies for dinner - and of course, birthday cake!  We celebrated Peyton's birthday in Clinton with presents and a "pool cake" per request.  She liked it and thought it was funny that the teddy grahams were "floating" on gum rafts!  The water was blue jello jigglers.  We sang and she blew out her "7" candle.  Then Amanda and I went to the chaos at Walmart for a TV for them.  An hour later, we walked out with the TV she wanted and a few other bargains.  Not too bad.

Friday was our 11th (I think) annual baking day.  Peyton and Garrison were really involved this year and we all had fun.  Garrison unwrapped the mini-Reese's peanut butter cups and took his "job" seriously.  About 100 of them, so it was a job!  He did great.  Peyton put all the peanut butter dough balls in the mini-muffin tins.  Peyton was great help at measuring the ingredients for roll-out sugar cookies.  They both rolled the dough and cut out the shapes they wanted.  We also made cherry smash balls - it was our first year for them.

Friday afternoon, Amanda and I went to Cummings Men's Wear and bought Ron some new pants, a tie and two new shirts - 25% off sale.  We all went out to dinner at Square 109 on the square.  Yummy food and a good time.  Afterward, the grandparents and the kiddos rode around town to look at the lights.  Due to the rain and cold, the annual Christmas parade which we always attend was cancelled  boo hoo.  The kids took a bath with the jets going full blast and had a great time.

On Saturday after breakfast, the kids had a great time dipping and decorating pretzel sticks and made peppermint candy Christmas tree ornaments - per Peyton's request.  We also attempted to make Grandma's fudge recipe - we were less than successful, but we ate it anyway.  It was a little dry and hard - wish we could make it like she did.  Maybe we'll try again.

After a leftover lunch, Amanda/family went home.  Ron and I are going to Windsor tomorrow to the Christian Church where David Mills preaches now.  David asked me to sing with him for Advent, and I'm also playing the piano for the whole service.  Deb and David and we are going to Sedalia for lunch after church - going to check out the new Kohl's over there too!

We are so blessed - God is good.

Middle November 2015

I'm blogging for a couple of weeks, so I need to cover Veteran's Day.  I'm sure Daddy and Mom celebrated in Heaven - Veteran's Day was always an important day to both of them.  Peyton took a picture of Grandpa Mintun to school for their Veteran's Day Poster - she was very proud to have his picture up there.

Peyton's Thanksgiving Program at her school, Cottonwood Point Elementary, was last Thursday night, and we went to Overland Park for it.  We did a bit of shopping and grabbed a bite to eat at Culver's before going over to the Todds to visit a bit before going to the program.  We took Peyton a couple of birthday gifts, but we will have her Clinton birthday party over Thanksgiving.

Peyton did a fantastic job during the program both with  her speaking parts and singing the songs - I could hear her!  After the program, we all (both sets of grandparents, the parents,  Garrison and Peyton) went to Orange Leaf for an ice cream treat.  Then we went back by their house to pick up Apollo for his Clinton Thanksgiving vacation.

Friday was Peyton's 7th birthday.  She received a fit bit from her parents and is so excited about it.  She told me on Saturday that she walked over 8000 steps on Friday!  She beats her Grandpa by almost double.  She took Krispy Kreme donuts for her treat at school (her momma wins the award for that day - went at 5:30 a.m. to buy them for her), then they went to The Cheesecake Factory for dinner to celebrate.

We are 90% decorated inside for Christmas  -  nothing outside yet.  The ornament in the pic is what we bought on our Disney Cruise.

On Saturday night, Ron and I attended the hospital gala, Denim and Diamonds.  It was a fun evening with delicious food - funds went for the cardiac rehab center - made me remember Mom's weeks there - those people became like our family, seeing them 3 times a week for 2 hours each time.

On Sunday, I played the gathering music at the first church service on the piano and played the organ for both services.  Then we went to the Thanksgiving dinner at church - yummy!

Nap time - we are blessed.

Four Glorious Days with our Little People - November 2015

The first picture is of Peyton and Garrison in their costumes on Halloween Night right before they went trick or treating with their neighborhood friends!  A cute little kitten and The Hulk!

Ron and I went to Overland Park Thursday morning - right after getting our free crunchy breakfast treat from Taco Bell - available because Lorenzo Cain stole a base in the first World Series game.  We stopped at Kohl's in Belton and at HyVee before going to Amanda and Chad's house.  They had taken the kids to school that morning before heading to Big Cedar Lodge in Branson for a 4-day getaway extended weekend to relax and enjoy each other.  We were the real winners since we got to stay with Peyton and Garrison!!!!!

We picked Peyton up as a walker after school and then went to All Around Child to pick up Garrison.  Grandpa and Garrison stayed home while Peyton and I went to her piano lesson.  After the lesson, we picked up the guys and went to dinner at Peyton's choice - Freddy's (Grammy loves Freddy's, but she picked it on her own).  I quizzed Peyton on her spelling words on the way there and back between hearing her read the joke book I gave her - I know a lot of Knock-Knock jokes now!!!!

Peyton wanted to sleep with me - big surprise - so Grandpa slept downstairs.  Garrison woke up about an hour after we went to bed and came into the guest room.  He said, "Grammy, I'm.........why is Peyton in bed with you?"  He forgot all about why he came in there and said he wanted to sleep with us too - what was I to say?

They woke up around 6 a.m. on Friday morning, so we had plenty of time to get dressed, get their backpacks ready and to go to McDonald's for breakfast for a special treat.  They loved it!!!!

While they were in school on Friday, we did a few things around the house and then went to the mall for Peyton's birthday shopping and a little Christmas shopping.  The mall is already decked out with Christmas decorations - not too crowded.  We had lunch at The Salty Iguana which was delicious and headed home.  We picked up Garrison first on Friday - he was excited to tell us about his field trip that day to the Arboretum - the caboose was his favorite.  Then we picked up Peyton as a walker - Garrison had fun going along.  We went back to Amanda's and picked up Apollo and their things and headed to Clinton for the rest of the weekend.

We had a good dinner and a fun evening playing Hot Potato and watching a few cartoons before bedtime.  Saturday morning, Grandpa was in charge since I had to go to Sedalia for a P.E.O. meeting. He took them with him to the bank to close a loan - they thought that was cool.  Then they all went to Subway for lunch.  They also went to two playgrounds - Garrison del and skinned his chin and Peyton overdid the monkey bars and has two blisters on her hand - thus the bandaged hand - Nurse Grammy to the rescue!  Peyton had to have her bandage changed 4 times in less than 24 hours!

I got home about 12;30 p.m.  Peyton and I went to Esther's to walk her dog, Sippy - she had a great time doing that.  We tried to have quiet time/nap time, and they did spend about an hour in the bedroom, but there was nothing happening in there that resembled sleep!

Kelly had found several turtle shells on Friday, so we went out to her house and looked for them - Garrison wanted one.  She wasn't home, and we couldn't find them in the woods, so we went out to her hunting land where she was and had some more turtle shells and picked out 4.  Then we stopped at Curtis Mills' farm where they were out there working.  We saw their miniature horses, Roy and PeeWee, the pig, Charlotte, the goats, Biscuit and Jelly, and chickens.  We came home and washed the turtle shells.  We had ham, mashed potatoes/gravy, mixed vegetables, bananas and rolls for dinner and then had bath time.  We had a full day, and they went to sleep quickly.

Sunday morning we went to church and donut time (their favorite), then home to put polyurethane on  the turtle shells and played outside - yard darts, kite flying, t-ball and walking Apollo.  It was a beautiful day to be outside.  We had green bean casserole, cottage cheese, peaches, broccoli and rolls for lunch.

Amanda and Chad arrived around 1:30 p.m. to pick up the kids and Apollo.  We enjoyed hearing about their weekend and telling them about ours.

We are the luckiest grandparents in the world with the sweetest grandchildren - we are blessed.