Weldist?

A few weeks ago, Andy sent me a video of a man welding.

I recognized the surroundings as Andy's 'man cave' and assumed it was Andy.

We bought Andy his first welder when he was 16 and he's been welding ever since.

His welder is to Andy as my Bernina (sewing machine) is to me...

At the end of the video, he lifted his hood and to my surprise, 

It was Locklan!

Andy said he spent the day welding

 (or whatever you call it when they weld-after all the new thing to call someone who sews is sewist, not sewer, should I call him a weldist?).

Locklan later told me that he made me a present.

On Christmas eve, he proudly presented me with this...

A Basset Hound!

He did admit that it's ears were too small, but isn't he amazing...

He's not even 6!

Creative genes or crazy genes?

Did I mention I love being a grandma?

 

We Got Them Going!

Back in July I got a kick ass deal on digital photo frames...

So I got everyone one, even me!

During the holiday season, they were the farthest from our minds...

But Mindy being Mindy, she's always busy, as soon as her tree came down 

(Mine is still up), she started loading photos into hers.

Henry LOVES photos, especially of him, but he loves Teagan and Locklan too.

So it was a huge hit with him...

He even talks to it!!

I got a text from Ashley...

Her kids were fascinated as well!

Of course, I had to set mine up too...

Now last year I bought my mom one but since she didn't have internet access, you had to load the photos into hers...

Ours has wifi...we can send pictures to each other's frame.

Oh what fun!  Mindy got to see Tony's second grade picture!

Simple pleasures...

 

Good Riddance, 2020!

On New Year's Eve, 
Ashley sent me these pictures...

The kids were painting their 'balls' for the countdown!

Every hour they would lower their balls on this display

until it reached 9:PM, New Years, or so it seemed to two kids who get to bedbefore 8 every night!

When the clock struck 9, Ashley gave the kids each 

1/4 can of ginger ale in these fancy glasses.

They never get sugary treats.

Andy said that even though it was an hour and a half after bedtime,

Locklan had what we called the zoomies.

Grandma? Not so much.  I think I was asleep before they were.

All's well that ends well...

Happy New Year!

 

I Missed You Guys!

 I know it looks like I dropped off the face of the earth...

I did not.

So much going on, from Mama Drama (issues with my mom)

to getting really sick and chalking it up to stress (it was not)

to fearing Covoid (I was tested negative)...

My life was almost normal for a bit, and yesterday was one of the high spots.

Remember this day?

            Henry's big announcement?

Yesterday was even more exciting...

Remember this?

When Tony hit that golf ball that revealed Henry.

Since Henry loves to golf, yesterday he got to hit the gender reveal ball...

Yes, Henry's brother will be here in March.

Needing a nap, talk to you later.

Love ya!

 

Locklan's Big Day!

 Last Saturday most of us headed for the river...

Andy and Ashley decided they were headed Lernerville, our local dirt track.  

For their back to school special.

They had both school bus races and kid's bicycle races.

Locklan, who is usually the least competive kid,

entered the bicycle race...

He came in third!

Congrats, champ. Grandma Jan is so proud of you!

Pouring Lessons

"Grandma, if you need me, I'll be busy in the kitchen. I'm giving Teagan pouring lessons."

Yes, he was teaching her how to pour water from one container to the other.

Apparently it's serious and important work, they were at it long enough!

Oh, check out Teagan's hair.

She had none for so long, now it's just wild and crazy!

It has a mind of it's own!

Ahhhh, grandma life!

Back to Back Weekends!

Whew!

Seems that I no sooner recover from one weekend, 

here comes another one!

This one was a little easier, 

We stayed at home on Saturday and got things done around here.

Early Sunday, we got a text from Tony,

He was at camp, ready to install the ladder on the new dock.

Later, he sent photos...

We were happy that he got that done.  

So much work to be done this year, 

The new dock, reworking the ramps,

installling hardware,

I'm so thankful for all the work the guys put in so we could enjoy ourselves.

This week, Mindy invited her family to come up and kayak.

There was Mindy, Tony and Henry; Dawna, Mindy's mom, and Mindy's sister, her boyfriend and dog were already out on the water when Mr. K and I got there...

just coming in...

Henry LOVES to kayak, in fact all three of our littles love it. 

Locklan got his own kayak this spring and when Teagan saw it, she had to get one too.

So far, she's not ready for the open water, she practices in her Great Uncle Mike's pool!

After we got everyone ashore, we ate (too much)

and caught up.  

I hadn't seen Dawna in nearly a year!

Then we decided that it was time to take a boat ride!

Henry was so excited.  He loves the boat.

He did get to help his dad drive...

Ashley (Mindy's sister), her boyfriend Kyle wanted to go tubing.

Looks like fun, doesn't it?

Of course, you were never towed by Tony...

He can be brutal!

Finally, we were on our way back to the dock.

Kyle was in charge of making sure the tube didn't blow away.

Forrest made sure her daddy didn't blow away...

~sigh~

It was a good day.

Henry, who is usally on a schedule, did not nap.  

He was so excited to have everyone around at his beck and call...

It was almost 8 when we left.

That's his bedtime when he has a nap.

He was still going strong as Tony strapped him in his car seat.

Two minutes later...

What a great day at Camp Manfred!

This Little Piggy

Teagan loves to sit on my lap, kick her shoes off and play

This Little Piggy.

By now, she knows it by heart.

I just say, "This little piggy..."

She says the rest.

Yesterday, she climbed up on my lap to play.

This was her version:

This little piggy went to market.

This little piggy went to the market too.

This little piggy had poptarts.

This little piggy didn't have anything.

This little piggy went tickle, tickle, tickle, 

all the way to home.

Gosh, I hope she's not going to be the family clown.

I'm loving every minute of it!

Grandma Life

 I was sorting through some old photos and found two that touched my heart...

So much love between these three kids...

This one was taken the first time I baby sat all three at once...

I love being a grandma!

I just realized it's Tuesday.  I have a full day planned...

Two Day Tuesday.

Now, you might not care, but I am wondering where I've been and what I have been doing.

After all, it's been a while and to be honest, I'll have to go to my phone to see what I photographed.

On Sunday, Tony and Mindy called to say they were on the bike trail, could they stop in...

We had a great visit.  You know what happens when I'm enjoying something...

I forget to take photos.  Fortunately, Tony shared this one...

Henry loves bike rides!

Locklan came to spend the night...

 He woke me at 3AM to tell me he wasn't sleepy.

We went into the family room to cuddle.  

He went back to sleep.

I did not.

I might have been a little crabby that day.

After you sleep with the plaid blanket, 

you drag it out onto the patio to make a fort...

Grandma Jan barely recovered from that day when I invited the kids back so Locklan could help me pressure wash the patio...

He spent half the time scrubbing the patio, half the time flipping it over and squirting everyone.

After they got bored, they filled a pool, dragged the slide over and had a ball!

We have a section of the yard that we try to get grass to grow...

Completely without luck.

Tony reseeded it a few years ago, even came and watered it every morning on his way to work...

Usually it's just ugly, but with the hose running, we had a mess.

I promised Ashley years ago that I would never return her kids clean.

This was one of those days.

I was sitting on the patio, just snapping photos with my phone when I managed to snag this gem...

The day ended up with two very tired kids...

Tuesday lasted two days this week...

Every Tuesday the cleaning ladies come, 

so does the lawn care guys...

Yesterday the lawn care guys came and mulched...

I don't have a photo of the splendid job the guys did and I'm too lazy to stand up and take one!

They said they would be back this morning to mow.

We finally sat down with the guy from Bright Covers to discuss a new cover for our patio.

We currently have a sunsetter awning and I HATE  it.  If you want to know why, shoot me an email.

My brother-in-law has a Bright Cover and they love it.  

I knew that's what I wanted.

We signed on the dotted line, that's the good part...

The bad part is that they are working 12 weeks out...

And lastly, the part of  Tuesday that got carried into Wednesday...

My lawn guy!

Top that!

If I don't talk to you before then, have a safe and festive Fourth!

River Rats, Unite!

A few weeks ago, Andy got a new pellet smoker.

He played with it at home, and offered to make us pulled pork at camp.

It was delicious!

He decided that he wanted to try a brisket.  Andy, Tony and I went together and bought one.

He started it at 3AM on Saturday and by noon it was ready and incredible.

I was so busy eating I didn't think to take pictures.  Next time.

Mark's brother and nephew came, his wife and daughter came later.

Tyler, my nephew, had a blast on Cody's jet ski...

A few months ago, my oldest son, Michael, gave Andy an old lawn tractor.

He cut it apart and reasseembled it for Locklan.

They brought it to camp so Locklan could move fire wood.

Everyone else took a few trips in the boat, 

Locklan went tubing.

I didn't go out at all, my back was killing me.

Henry loved Andy's beat up hat.

Don't you just love his smile?

Little by little, everyone was tired and started to slow down....

Michelle got this photo of Locklan and Teagan sitting on the steps to the dock...

Another happy day at Camp Manfred...

This and That

 Mark's brother, Uncle Mike, invited Mr.K and I, Andy and Tony and their families down for a swim and cookout.  Michelle, Mike's wife, made us Primanti Sandwiches, made famous by the restaurant in Pittsburgh.  They looked kind of like this...

Yes, there's french fries (and Michelle made the real deal fries), coleslaw, cheese, tomato and meat...

I never had one, so I made a deconstructed sandwich (no bread).  The combination was heavenly!

The main focus for the kids was...

The pool, of course.

Although it was a fairly nice day, as soon as the sun went down, it got chilly.

Even so, the kids didn't want to stop swimming.

It was a great night, good company, good conversation and 

great people.

I feel so blessed to be included in this family!

What Happens at Grandma's

On Thursday, Locklan came to spend the night with Grandma!

He hasn't done that since right before Christmas.

He had a long list of things we had to do, 

But first, he wanted to check my 'roof' to make sure it wasn't leaking

(he never seems to understand the difference between 
roof and ceiling

not to mention that my bedroom is above our family room).

So he drags the ladder in and sets it up...

I'm sure you'll be happy to hear my roof is fine.

We had to head down to his house because he forgot to pack his tooth brush,

When we got back, he set up the inflatable bed in the living room.  

He was up at 6AM!  I'm an early riser but I really enjoy that quiet time before Mr. K wakes up.

Locklan woke up talking!

First thing on our list was to bake cookies...

I am not a cookie maker, it takes too long.  After the first batch, I used my 1/4 cup scoop and we had huge cookies for him to take home.

Then we used the big boy paints (not washable) and painted cars for our wooden railroad.

Since we were using acrylics, he had to strip down to his undies!

The whole time we were doint things, he talked and talked and talked...

At one point he said, "All these stories are old ones 

but they are very true!"

He almost fell asleep before getting the train track set up.

He amazes me, we have so much fun, but I had to take him home because we were heading for the river in the morning!