Fun and Games! Our Weekend!

It was a good weekend for me as a Mimi/MeeMaw!

Had it not been for the stormy weather today, I would have been able to see Rayne and have some Bella moments!! As it turned out, I got to see 7 out of my 8 grandchildren and am going to push hard to spend some time with Rayne soon! She lives the farthest away and soon she will be moving even  further!!

The fun and games started Friday night and not a moment too soon!!

Louis Dean and I spent the entire day working! He in the back yard and I in the house - and mainly in the kitchen!

 It needed a really good cleaning. Plus - some of my lights were out - the fairy lights that I have strung up above the kitchen sink. That is ALWAYS cause for alarm but I have put it off until it was the kitchen's turn! As I clean the house - room by room - I try to do one extra project or chore in addition to the regular cleaning. Friday I put a fresh coat of paint on one of the rolling carts plus I painted a wooden wastebasket and a step stool - all in my favorite color - Colonial Red!

For the sake of KEEPING the kitchen clean - we cooked and ate lunch in the gazebo!

All spruced up now!

I've had this wooden trash container for over 30 years!

People don't always notice it's a trash can because of the needlework I keep stapled on the lid.

I stitched it back in 1994 as I sat up at North Lake Natatorium watching Amber practice synchronized swimming for The Pirouettes of Texas. Good memories.

Then it was time to take a shower and clean up!!
 Trust me - I looked like a Bag Lady on a bad day so it was good I could still make myself look decent!

I was off a little before 7:00 for one of Sam's baseball games.

Levi was the first to greet me - and tell me all about his little girlfriend who can wrestle as well as he can AND is teaching him some soccer skills! I love this little guy!! He has a HUGE personality and is as charming and sweet as any boy you can find!

Meet Angel, the dog Sam got at Christmas. She's still a puppy at 6 months old. 

She's going to be huge!

Sam is my oldest grandchild and he's the one standing up in the middle holding a bat.

Just a boy and his dog!

I enjoyed watching them all run around on the field after the game!!

I do believe they totally wore Angel out!!

It was late when I got home and even later by the time we went to bed.
So late that I missed getting up early enough to watch the quads play their last soccer game!!

Photo courtesy of Amber!
However, I did get my act together and made it to their very first T-Ball game that afternoon!!

Mike is the coach of T-Ball......just as he and Amber were the coaches for soccer.

I love watching them with the children.

Dada knows how to put the caps on the girls - pulling their ponytails through the hole in the back.

Both teams gathered for a word of prayer before playing ball.

I see the three girls in this pic!

Look at Mike smiling at Trystan!!

Run, Trystan! RUN!!!

Now it's Kailey Girl's turn up at bat!

She hit AND she ran!!!

I found myself cheering for both teams - they were just so precious!!

They look so cute out there on the field!

Coach Mike was encouraging the kids on a good game and possibly they could work over not fighting for the ball next week!! They would just pile up on each other to get the ball - much like football players do!! It was hilarious! They aren't quite sure what they are supposed to do with the ball other than GET IT!! They have the concept of hitting the ball down but you still have to tell them to RUN when they DO hit it!! One little boy took off - straight ahead toward second base!

Who wants a cupcake???

Harrison was telling me he could share half of his cupcake with me!

I appreciated but declined his sweet offer!!

I loved seeing the girls playing ball while sporting their newly painted nails!

I need to work on my 'selfie' skills!!

A little better!

It was truly entertaining to watch the kids play!

I laughed and cheered and loved every minute!

The kids asked a few times where Granddad was!!

I left him at home to rest. He's been working so hard!

When I got back, I made him a good meal - fried pork chops, baked potato, salad and garlic bread.

This is my plate. HE got TWO pork chops!

Then I left him home alone - once again!!

Amber picked me up for a trip to the movies!

The animated version was their Friday night movie  at home with popcorn and cokes in anticipation of seeing it on the big screen - 'with REAL people' - as Trystan said!

It was amazing and we had the best time!
Even better was the fact we all went as a group with some dear friends!

So this morning (Sunday) I got up and dressed for church.
And - once AGAIN - I left Louis Dean at home to REST!!
I'm afraid he doesn't really rest all that much when I'm gone, though.

Our friend, Dawn, posted this on my Facebook page and it is so true!

Amazing the things he thinks up to do when I'm not around to stop him!

While I meant to be gone all day, I was back much earlier.

Still, he had time to whip up a batch of homemade pancakes, eat and CLEAN UP before I arrived!

The only clues I had that he had cooked was the lingering smell of hot cakes in the air - and the bottle of syrup he forgot to put back in the pantry.

I think he's learned AMAZINGLY well to clean up after himself!!!!

And this is good because he gets to cook even more this way!

The storms passed and we were sitting out in the gazebo this afternoon when we noticed a flock of birds had landed in what's left of our Yaupon Holly tree right there by the playhouse.

If you look hard, you can tell LD butchered pruned this tree early last week.

There's not many berries left since there's not much tree left.

***Note to Self!****

Give more supervision attention when hearing the sound of a chain saw!

I tried to take some pictures but all I had was my mini iPad.

The birds were small and sleek looking with yellowish/cream underbellies.

We keep some bird books out in the gazebo and looked through the 'Birds of Texas' but I freely admit I do not have the eyes for identifying birds.

I do know there are no more yaupon holly berries to be had on what's left of that tree!!

It was thrilling to watch them swoop in and eat in a frenzy and swoop away!

They did this three times before all the berries were gone.

The birds devoured every single last red berry from our Yaupon Holly Tree!

We love adventure!! From birds to lizards to possums - which we have not seen babies yet this year - we are always watching for the magic of wildlife in our own backyard!

Now I will leave you with some photos (courtesy of Dean!) of what's it's like when it rains - at the ranch!

Some pretty serious mud!!

Sherry barely got out today!

I may be crazy but I would love to be there IF I didn't have to leave!

At least until the mud was gone!

I'm pretty sure my mud boots would get stuck in this - what do you think?