Little Boys, Big Boys and Trains!

Something about little boys and trains! The Live Oak Civic Center had a model train show this weekend. I don't know who was more excited, Papa or the grandsons. We took Hayden and Sam and ran into Marshall, his dad, his aunt, and his grandpa!

The best set-up of all, hands down, was the Lego train set. This was much larger than this picture shows, with at least three tables of tracks. The fun thing was looking for people and objects hidden in funny places, like Toy Story characters up on top on some of the trains, a Santa Claus near a chimney, Spam, the Toy Story pig in a truck, Darth Vador riding a bicycle, etc.

Even the ALAMO!!

Larry noticed there were lots of white-haired men operating the trains...

Spam, from Toy Story.

Hayden liked this purple, triple-decker bus!

Even the big boys like Sean enjoyed it too!

If you look closely here, you can see Woody and Jessie on the train!

After eating lunch at Red Robin, we headed over to the "Golf and Ice Center" to see what it was all about. They had an ice-skating rink which was fun to observe, but Hayden and Sam thought it looked very difficult (rightfully so!) We were way under-dressed in our summer attire and froze during the short period of time we were in there! Then we found the game area and Hayden enjoyed playing this ice hockey game with both Papa and me! It really was fun, and he decided this is what he wants for Christmas! We decided it would be fun to come back and watch a real ice hockey game here sometime. We saw some kids in hockey gear about his age leaving as we were going in, so they must have leagues that play here.

We never found a golf area, but we did find this indoor soccer field with some lessons taking place! Who knew we had this in San Antonio?

When we got back to our house, we decided to continue with the train theme and the boys watched "Polar Express." When they got ready to go home, Hayden announced this had been his "Ninth favorite day of his entire life!" At the top of the list was his last birthday party! We had fun too! Anytime we are with our grandchildren, it is right up there at the top of our most favorite things to do in our lives!

Ainsley B'dainsley O'dainsley

A trip to Houston this past weekend provided lots and lots of laughs with Ainsley. For quite a long time, her mom teases her sometimes and calls her "Ainsley B'dainsley." Then she started adding "Ainsley B'dainsley O'dainsley." So now, when you ask Ainsley what her name is, she says, "Ainsley B'dainsley O'dainsley ----" and then the rest of her full name. Then she starts laughing like she is doing in this picture. When I tried to video record her, she got up and walked away, like she did during several "Kodak moments" this trip!

Here she is making Play-Doh worms, a new interest.

What is so interesting out the window, Ainsley???

It's "Squirrelly," the "pet squirrel" who comes to devour dried corn that John places on the top of the fence. He provided hours of entertainment all weekend.

He even had a friend join him, as well as several birds.

Ainsley was not easy to photograph this weekend. As soon as she saw me starting to focus on her, she'd get up and walk away! This picture shows the main weekend attire. She had on her "princess skirt", tiara, and usually had on her Snow White high heels! She said, "I am Princess Ainsley."

She loved rolling on a large plastic ball. Here she is coming....

...and here she is, going!

She asked me to take a picture of her "two Minnies" who she said are COUSINS.

Once again, Mimi did her best to put her hair up in two pony tails! I promise I will do better when you get a little older, Ainsley, and when you get a little more hair that isn't so baby fine.

Amid all the frilly, girly, pink things in her house, is this chair---a touch from Dad.

I'm not sure where John and Colleen got the energy to put together this wonderful, gourmet meal after working as hard as they did all week and then running errands Saturday morning, but it was a really special treat! Thank you for another great weekend in Houston and allowing me to make more memories with my sweet granddaughter! What a blessing!

"LEMON AID"

Macy, Marshall, and Macy's friend, Hannah set up a special "Lemon Aid" stand on a hot Sunday afternoon. They were raising money for the "Water:Blood" program to raise money for clean water in Africa. Their sign tells the story. One dollar provides water for ONE WHOLE YEAR for one African. They also had lemon bars to go with their lemonade. Most people gave far more than a dollar and when one person gave $25.00, Marshall got excited and said, "That will provide water for one person for TWENTY-FIVE YEARS!!!"

They raised over $150 in just an hour and a half! I am proud of you, Macy and Marshall for giving up some play time to help others. It was such a hot, humid afternoon which made us all appreciate the value of a cool glass of water!

Hula-Hooping Kids!

I love this picture! Marshall was just learning how to hula-hoop and he was going so fast that he is a blurrrrrrrr!

Macy caught on quickly and could keep the hoop at her waist for a very long time, plus she added some dance steps to her moves! She was very entertaining!

More Funny Marshall

I was in the kitchen, and I heard a loud noise. It was Marshall, sitting in the back of his Tonka dump truck, pedaling himself down the hall and into the kitchen with his feet!

This was Marshall's time to come to Mimi's and Papa's all alone, and the next morning, we were going to church. He brought special new clothes that he had gotten for his birthday from Aunt Carol and Uncle Herb. He was so excited to have all new clothes to wear, and he looked so grown up. You can't see it, but he even had on a new brown leather belt with silver trim and brown loafers...and he got dressed, all by himself. When I tried to help him tuck in his shirt, he said, "No, Daddy taught me how to tuck in my own shirt."

He went to a Sunday school class all by himself, (for the first time at our church), and then sat in "big church" with us. I took a coloring book and crayons and a few little snacks, and he was a very good boy! Afterward, we went to a Chinese restaurant for lunch and he was interested in the fountain that had coins in it. He found a few coins, that had missed the water and threw them back in! It was great fun having him all by himself, for a change. Marshall, you are growing up just too, too fast!

Beautiful Texas Summer

Last summer, we had hot, hot temperatures and no rain. Lawns and flowers burned up and it wasn't pretty! This year, we've had a beautiful, cool, wet spring and everyone's yards are green with lots of blooming flowers. Here is a bouganvilla on our deck that we almost threw away in the spring, because we thought the extremely cold winter we had with temps into the teens killed it! Seriously, it was just a few dead sticks. Well, then I bought some "Bouganvilla Food" and began fertilizing it. This is the result!

When it rains here, like it did last week, an interesting thing occurs. The normally grey, dull Texas sage bursts into blooms of purple!! This is a picture of one I took the other day at La Cantera Shopping Center. They looked like this all over town. The blooms are already falling off, but when we have another summer rain, they will bloom again! Another of God's little gifts...but you have to take time to really see them!