This past weekend, our daughter and her husband traveled out of state for the wedding of a close family friend, and we were happy to keep five of their children.

Saturday was a clear, sunny, and quite cool day.  We buckled all five children into appropriate
car seats, and headed for the farm.  My brother and sister-in-law were already there, with
two of their grandchildren, close to the same age as ours.  Four adults...seven children, and
a free day ahead of us.

The pond seemed to offer great enjoyment for the little ones. (and much supervision by the
adults).

For some reason, the pebbles by the side of the water, seem to offer hours of fun.  Throwing
them in the water, skipping them across the water, collecting unique shaped stones, building
piles of stones, and then seeing how many of them they can spread across the dock.  In fact,
I think they could have been happy with one whole field of just rocks:)

A wagon ride also seemed to be a thrilling adventure.  They were headed for the woods to
retrieve sticks.  Some large for fire building, and some smaller for the craft they were
waiting to do.  Once again, careful supervision was required.

They returned with quite a large collection, and were eager to show us what they found.

With careful attention to the details, they(with my help), built two "Thankful trees".  With
each leaf, they listed the "who" and the "what" that topped their list of items they felt
thankful for.  They sat and thought, which is what I wanted them to do.   I wanted
the craft to serve as a reminder of all that they have in their little lives, for which to be thankful.

At lunch time, our oldest granddaughter offered to help, and carefully added peanut
butter to each graham cracker square.  It seems like only a short time ago, I was doing
the same thing at her age.  My mother would serve us peanut butter on graham
crackers with canned pears, as dessert with dinner, many times throughout my
own childhood. 

The children lined the kitchen island, on the wooden stools.  It was a lot of mouths to feed,
and we fed them cheeseburger pie, orange and apple slices, carrots and dip, and graham
crackers with peanut butter.  A perfect Saturday afternoon lunch!  For the adults, my SIL
made sure there was always a pot of hot coffee available. 

There was time to find ladybugs and the food to feed them:).

Time to play whiffle ball with bases to run around, and a pretty pitcher along with it.

There was time to start a fire, down at the fire pit. My brother has become an expert in this
area, and soon there was a roaring fire, offering warmth for everyone.  Of course, hot dogs
and s'mores were on the menu for the simple, yet fun evening meal.  As you could
surmise, it takes lots of hotdog roasting for 11 people, and once again, much supervising.


For some in the crowd, it was their first experience at roasting their own hotdogs.

There were all degrees of "roasted" hotdogs.  The little store down the road was out of
hot dog rolls, so we used a loaf of bread.  It all tasted so good, around the big fire.

 

Fire blackened hotdogs and fire blackened marshmallows, are the

best ingredients for a memorable and "filled with adventure", November

Saturday.

 

 

 

I think we would all agree, that nothing could be better than a

fall day, spent at the farm!

 

Last evening, their parents returned home, and we hugged the five grandchildren

goodbye, knowing that once again, we were blessed with the privilege

of time spent with them.  And once again, we were reminded

of the huge, time consuming job, parenting is.

 

This evening, as my husband and I ate our dinner, the house was quiet.

No food to cut up.  No listening to endless conversations, and trying

to give everyone a chance to talk.  We agreed, we are certainly in a different phase

of life.  Now we are the "old" ones.  And, like each of you know, it all went by

so quickly.

 

Thank you for stopping here, for my "little something".