Quad Monday and Tuesday Treasures!

Monday was a Rainy Quad Day but we still had plenty of fun!

The kids arrived with their usual enthusiasm which never fails to warm our hearts!

Logan is carrying two pieces of 'mail' she hand made for me.......letters and notes in an envelope!

Harrison handed me this bag of newspaper and ads.

At first I thought it was one of those hats you fold and fashion out of newspaper - which is a good idea for next Quad Monday - but that's not what it was.

Harrison said, "This is for YOU, MeeMaw, for when you go shopping. Now you have COUPONS!!"

Later, Amber wrote this explanation on Facebook where I had posted the photo:

They love looking thru ads but didn't really understand what they were for. When we got in the car I noticed they had carried two ziplocs of coupons out with them and asked them why they had those. They were gonna give them both to you, but just called them newspapers. I explained they were coupons and what they were for. To which they told me that I needed one bag then because I go grocery shopping all the time. When I got back in the car after leaving the kids with you noticed they had put the other ziploc right in my purse lol. They are efficient!

Since it was too wet to play the promised Croquet game in the front yard, we decided to go for a walk in the rain making sure we waded through every puddle!

I even took them down the drainage ditch where the water was flowing over my short rain boots and splashed into the tops of theirs!

That umbrella was nearly too big for Kailey to handle.

We had a fine time and spent over an hour exploring the neighborhood. They liked the areas that had deeper puddles best, of course!

Coming home you can see all the mess from the pecan trees!

The first thing the kids did when we got in was to take off all their wet clothes because by this time there wasn't a dry stitch on them. Then they took a nice warm bath and put on their pajamas while I washed and dried their clothes.

The next thing we did was make Dilly Bits!

The kids dearly LOVE these - as do I and as does Charlie, Deanie's husband.

I will have to fix up a tin full for him.

The recipe is simple.

Oyster crackers, oil, dry Ranch dressing mix, dill weed, garlic salt, seasoning salt, and garlic powder.

I used 5 packages of crackers so that meant 5 packages of Ranch mix. I never measure the oil or the seasonings. After you stir and get the crackers coated, dump out on baking sheets and bake in a slow oven at 250* - I use the convection oven as it doesn't take as long - for about a half hour, stirring and turning them half way through.

The quads wanted to know if they could take a tin home!

Absolutely!!

Lunch was served in the dining room with glass cups for their water.

Eating in here makes them feel like grown ups!

Simple hot dogs, mac and cheese that was really good, and black beans.

Kid friendly food.

There may have been wine in the two goblets for us!

Kids are hilarious!!!

Kailey is telling us that in 'THIS MANY DAYS' all her teeth are going to fall out and then she will be a GROWN UP and Granddad will say, "Oh, my gosh! What HAPPENED to you, Kailey??"

It was fun to sit around and talk with them.

Never a dull moment!

Good long naps followed for all six of us in the den.

We usually run of of time before we run out of things to do and painting has been put off a few times lately. So we had a lesson in mixing paint and then they were given watercolors, printed and plain art paper and they were happy little artists!

I took advantage of them being so highly occupied to start dinner preparations.

I did my part and then left Louis Dean in the kitchen to do his part.

After I packed away all the art supplies, the kids helped me pull out all my Santa Paintings.

They each chose their favorite one to talk about.

Logan loved this one best, she said.

Harrison immediately picked the biggest one which happens to be Louis Dean's favorite one, as well.

Kailey chose the Kneeling Santa.

And Trystan picked the SHHHH Santa or 'Shushing Santa' as we call him.

She told her story and then Harrison took it from there!!

They are still propped up out there in the den as I write but I intend to get them hung the next day or two.

I had promised the quads I would make Elephant Ears thinking that would be something special.

You don't usually  eat a lot of elephant ears!

When I was telling them about it on Sunday, Harrison was looking skeptical and asked, "Are they just COOKIES?" Apparently, he is old enough to have been disappointed be the sound of something special that turned out to be something quite ordinary!

Well, Louis Dean said he greatly overestimated how long 30 seconds is!

They got a little too brown but they were good and tasted like a cross between a donut and a sopapilla. Best eaten warm and sprinkled with cinnamon sugar. Honey and butter would be good too!

We went the extra mile or two this Quad Monday but it was worth every bit of it.

Dinner was once again served in the dining room with a fresh round of cloth napkins.

We had Salmon Croquettes, mashed potatoes and green peas.

Trystan announced while we were eating, "This is some GOOD DINNER!"

She is so neat and tidy and after wiping her hands on her napkin, announced - "My napkin is DOIRTY!" I held mine up and told her to just look how big it was and how small her hands are and that there was NO WAY she could have dirtied up and entire napkin front and back.

This made her giggle and she continued to use her 'doirty' one!

They were pleased that they didn't have to leave until well after dark.

I'm so glad they love to come here and I hope they always will!

Bye!!! Bye!!!!

It's a tradition!!

Tuesday morning I woke up from a dead sleep and downed one cup of coffee and then hit the floor running.

I picked Ruth Ann up and we drove to Dallas to meet up with my friend, Candie, at Central Market for lunch and then saw Jason Bourne for our first Tuesday movie in ages!!!

Doesn't Ruth Ann look adorable in her fancy hat??

She turned heads all day long!

It was especially good to see Candie! She has just recently moved back to the DFW area from San Antonio along with her daughter and grandchildren. We are happy they came 'Home!'

Ruth Ann and I went on to the Goodwill on Midway Road before we headed home.

Even the thrift stores are all geared up for Christmas!!

I scored with three new tree skirts......

this red cardinal skirt for my dining room cardinal tree!

A country skirt for a country tress!

This stocking kind of goes with that country skirt!

AND a little bling on my new Santa Hat!

This was my Buy of the Day!

THREE strands of these super cool lights......all brand new and still in the nifty carrier!

Louis Dean loves colored light so these are for him!

Today we not only saw a movie and shopped Goodwill, we also did ART!

We hit all three Tuesday Traditions!

This is the Santa for the Giveaway. I still need to add the strings to the instrument and put a few touches on that hand holding the bow. Then it just has to dry and then be glazed and dry again!

I think I'll be right on time in getting it mailed out to the winner by the last week in November.

I'm writing down all the names and keeping the list up so it will be ready to draw from on the 20th!

The Santa for the Family Chinese Christmas Tree is all but finished, too.

I'll go ahead and hang this one along with my other Santas in the den to hold his place.

Ruth Ann is coming right along on hers!

She's painting two of them and will be painting on her own when they go down to their farm for a few weeks.

This has been a good day to keep busy and not get too agitated about the election.

I saw this on Facebook this morning and it's good advice to all of us......

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