Come Little Grasshopper.....

J&P are VERY excited for school to start. Today we bought indoor shoes for school. They made sure I wrote their names in their shoes and then Jill proceeded to have a sit down with Peirce to fill him in on the important things about Grade One. I captured a bit of it. I find it quite entertaining to listen to Jill school Peirce on the ways of the world.

You can have a little listen too:

After this they went to the computer and somehow googled all the silly French songs Jill learned in Grade One and they practised those, and then read a Robert Munsch book in French.

I'd say they're ready! I know I sure am! I really don't think I ever imagined my kids would look forward to school so much - but both of them are VERY excited for this school year to begin. YEA!

The Ackroyd Family Title Of Liberty

I've decided to start a new label for our family blog and share what we do for FHE each week (perhaps a little self-imposed pressure to plan and hold FHEs with a little more substance?)

Tonight for FHE we did the lesson suggestion from the Sunday School lesson yesterday. It said to: read the account of Captain Moroni raising the title of liberty (Alma 46:12–20). Then work as a family to create your own title of liberty. Ask family members to list a few important principles that would remind and inspire them to take the name of Christ upon themselves. Then write those principles on a large piece of paper. Encourage family members to live according to the principles you have written on your family’s title of liberty.

I figured out how to work the timer on my camera! YEA! I get to be in a picture. lol

We had actually made a title of liberty a few years ago for our family.....so we dug that out of Peirce's toy box and talked about it.

The kids thought we should each make our own - so we each got a flag from some craft I prepared for a ward party a few years or so ago. My flag has our family reading together. We're reading the word of God, learning about the whisperings of the spirit, and preparing to go to the temple together.
Allen drew me (that'd be the chubby lady in his picture), Jill (the crazy looking child) and Peirce (the scrawny kid) for what was most important to him.



Jill wrote, "In memory of our religion, our goals, our love, and our unity." She also wrote Aaaaackroyds....because that's the cheer we do after family prayer and eternal family to remind us that we're stuck together forever.....I'm not sure how the Olympic rings fit in, except that she sure wants to go to the Olympics one day!

Peirce drew a bunch of aliens and a picture of me farting. (????) I guess we still have some work to do with that kid.
Sometimes FHE doesn't go quite as well as we hope it might. (sigh)

Afterwards we went to Dairy Queen for a treat. That is always a hit!

Fall Fair

Our children have spent a wonderful week in Raymond making memories with their grandparents and cousins.

This weekend was the Raymond Fall Fair. Auntie Carmen helped them to get some items to enter. All in all the Ackroyd gang came home with quite a haul of ribbons and prize money!

Jill won a second place ribbon and $4 for her Olympic collage

Peirce earned a 2nd place ribbon and $4 for his water color painting.
Here is a picture of almost everything......rice krispie bunnies, freezer jam, other kinds of jam, pictures, sewing, crafts, lego galore!! They sure have been busy!
Jill got a first place ribbon and $9 for her lego creation!

The Temple Trip That Wasn't

We tried to get to the temple this weekend. The EQ had planned an EQ temple trip with child care included! Allen and I were going to be the child-care providers while others revelled in the spirit of the temple. However, not many fish were biting. Only one couple planned to go. We were excited to hear that this would be a visit to the temple after four long years of not attending. Saturday morning we got up and quickly packed and set off....then the phone rang. They changed their mind.

Argh.

So we drove around in a circle for a bit and then said, "What are we thinking?! Let's just go ourselves!"

We were off again.

We didn't have our temple clothes though so we'd have to rent.
Oh wait. No cash....better stop at a bank machine.

The Royal Bank bank machine in Cardston was out of order.

So was the next bank we stopped at.

So was the next bank.

Are we meant to go to the temple today?
Oh wait!! We found one.

So off we went with our $20 in hand.....only to find out my recommend expired in June.

ARGH!!!

It sure is nice to spend time in the car with your spouse though. (Right?!)

Food Storage

I worked today on organizing our food storage room. That always dominoes into the rest of the basement since things seem to get shoved into that room and forgotten. I was a little dismayed when I showed Allen how much I'd accomplished. I worked on it for so long - but this is really the best part of it....these two shelves. LOL

I've never really had a testimony of the #10 cans from the church cannery - but I decided to try my faith this year and start using them. I've decided they're pretty good! They are easy to organize and store on our shelves.


These shelves are the best. We bought them when we first got married and they were a big trial of our marriage! The instructions claimed they snapped together easily....whatever! They take forever to put up - but once they're up they're very stable and they're also very deep - which has proved to be really nice for food storage. I think we need some more though. We'll have to use a different variety though as we don't have room for another big unit like this one...but if I can accomplish my monthly canning goal we'll need some shelves......narrower ones. We do have another set of shelves to the right of the ones in this picture....but we more. I'd like to squeeze in two more. We'll see how that goes!

The thing I've learned this year as our Stake has worked on preaching the 'Provident Pantry' approach is that my food storage room seems to be an on-going organizational task because we're always using things and moving things around as we add things. Apparently this is the way it is supposed to be though....so I'll persevere!

Oh - and don't those peaches look beautiful! I ended up with 59 jars. Loving that!!!

Roald Dahl

Peirce and I recently finished Matilda by Roald Dahl. We also listened to Witches during some recent travel time in the car.

I just have get this off my chest first: Roald Dahl was a disturbed man!! You get glimpses of it in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory when you see how not bothered Willy Wonka is by the bad things that happen to children...after all, they deserve it since they're so nasty! It gets a little worse in these two books though.

There were a lot of things about these stories that were bothersome to me. Matilda's parents were idiots and her school principal was a tyrant. She children find ways to survive....but should kids have to do that? (Perhaps it bothered me because so many do.) I could hardly stand to read it. Peirce would often comment that he didn't like her parents and he didn't like Miss Trunchbull, the principal. He wasn't good at putting the words together - but I understand what he was saying. There was something disturbing about these people. The story does turn around though and give hope to a kid with the help Matilda receives from her dear kind hearted teacher, Miss Honey, as well as the powers that Matilda discovers she has. And you have to admire Matilda for the smart, humble, voracious reader she is! All in all we enjoyed the way the book ended....but I think we're finished reading Roald Dahl out loud for a while.

So we've turned to books on CD! Not sure that's exactly a better idea with Roald Dahl. Peirce listened to Witches next. This book is full of wild imaginative tales about witches. Dahl tells the reader what to look for to identify a witch and finishes off by telling you that witches look just like regular ladies - it might be your Sunday School teacher, your kindergarten teacher, the nice lady next door, or some nice lady in a store. Talk about a way to instill fear in children! Somehow though Peirce continued to be glued to the story. He talked for days about watching for witches. Made me wonder what kind of damage I'm doing to my child with these stories!

I think that next we'll move on to something a little more time.....A Mouse Called Wolf sounds like a nice changeHe's just a nice little mouse that loves music and gets into typical mouse trouble. That sounds a little better!!

Peaches Peaches Peaches

Wow! Today I dug into the task of getting my 100 pounds of peaches canned. My goodness that is a lot of work!! I actually only got half way through them. I'll have to finish the rest tomorrow when my back and my legs are rested again. :0) I can't complain though. Apparently Carmen and Nana canned peaches too - with 6 kids around. Eeeek!

That's 32 jars!! YOWZA!!!

NEXT: More apples sauce, and then pears!! (Somewhere in there I need to find some picking cucumbers too)

Happy Birthday Jill!

Today our Jill is 10 years old! Hard to believe that 10 years ago I became a mother! I'll never forget it! Allen had just come home from a trip to Arizona on Sunday. Monday morning my water broke but it was only a slow leak and I wasn't really sure that was what it even was....so I went to the office with Allen. I called the doctor and that afternoon we went to see her and she confirmed that sure enough our baby was on the way! We were living in my parent's house because we had 3 months between when we had to be out of our house we were renting before we could move into our new house we had bought. I hadn't felt very motivated to buy much for a baby because I was trying to limit the stuff we were hauling from one house to the next. So we decided we'd better go shopping! I'll never forget standing in Wal-Mart in the baby aisles wondering what a baby needs. We bought some baby powder and some different oils (still don't know what those are for!) and a few other things and then headed home. We walked and waited and wondered when we should go to the hospital. Allen was totally exhausted from his trip so he went to bed. I kept feeling contractions and so I couldn't really sleep and so I stayed up and timed and waited. Finally at about 11:30 pm I figured it was time to go to the hospital. By 8:30 the next morning we met our new little GIRL!!

We didn't find out from the ultrasound if we were having a girl or a boy - so we waited with great anticipation. The funny thing was we only had boy's names picked out....none for a girl - so we really had to scramble when she was born!

I remember when the nurse told me it was a girl. I was so thrilled! They took her and weighed and measured her and I remember the feeling I had of SOOO looking forward to getting to know her. I wanted to hold you and say, "Hello little girl! I'm Mommy! Nice to finally meet you!"

When you were a baby I'd hold you for hours! I'd hold you when you were awake because you were just happier that way - and then you'd fall asleep and I'd hold you because you were just so cute. I was SO thrilled to be a mom!

And the more time has gone on the more that feeling has grown. I've loved getting to know Jill. She has grown into a really nice girl. She is responsible and kind and smart and fun and most of all, she has a strong testimony and loves the gospel. People often tell me how impressed they are with her. I just smile and thank them - but inside I want to yell, "You don't know the least of it!"

I had always promised myself I'd name my first girl Jill - but strangely, I had forgotten. Allen was the one who suggested the name Jill when we were in the hospital and I instantly agreed. It was the perfect name for our girl!

....now if we could just get you to eat without getting it all over your face....

We Love You Jill!!!

Canning Season Has Arrived

Today I taught an Enrichment class about making apple sauce and fruit leather. I think it went quite well. These are the jars I had left over. The three were from the class. I made the apple sauce with transparent apples...which I'm not sure I'd recommend. They're a little too soft for the cutting and they're quite tart. The jar that is more reddish was the last jar I made. They had a bunch of left over fruit from the water. They had put grapes and strawberries and oranges and blueberries and melons (honeydew, canteloupe and watermelon) in the water and were going to throw it out at the end of the day and I said, "Don't do that!" I took it home and made more applesauce out of it...and boy, is it tasty!! This is the almost finished fruit leather. Looks like it's going to be a beauty! Great for lunches!
I also made some fruit leather from the left-over fruit I snagged at the end of the day. That looks like it's going to be bursting with flavor!
And then this is what was waiting for me when I got home: 100 pounds of peaches. I plan to can those. The plan was to do it today....but I'm a little worn out. I think they're going to have to wait until Monday.
I really love working on my food storage. The peaches we got were $0.85 a pound. Yesterday I also ordered 80 pounds of pears - and those were 70 cents a pound. I've decided I'm going to set a goal to do some canning every month for the next 12 months. If I do a little every month we'll have a great stockpile of delicious food! Maybe I should change the title for this post. Canning Seasoning perhaps is going to become a misnomer. It'll be the canning year!

Leg Pits?

Yesterday I was spraying Peirce down with sun screen and bug spray. He said to me, "Mom, did you get my leg pits?"

Leg pits??! What are leg pits??

Right here...behind my knees!

(Laughed my head off over that one.....of course those are leg pits!)

Bread! Glorious Bread!

Isn't it beautiful!! I made this bread with half freshly ground wheat and half white wheat flour. I also threw in the remainder of flax seeds that I had around. It is so good!! I used Nana Hyde's recipe again.

We had a new member discussion at our house today and as we were just finishing I brought out the freshly baked buns and we had buns with butter....so good!! Amazing how quick a batch of buns can go when there are six adults and 3 kids! :0) We sure enjoyed them though.

I think I'm going to start making bread once a week. Friday is a day I often don't feel like working so much - and so that seems like a good distraction. Plus, it's a good way to start off the weekend....with some fresh baking! Stop by any Friday afternoon. :0)

Old Testament

I did it!! Last year I set a goal to read the Old Testament, New Testament, D&C and Pearl of Great Price in one year (along with reading the Book of Mormon all through the year). I failed. So I'm trying again this year. And today I finished the Old Testament!! YEA!!


I've enjoyed reading the Old Testament...but honestly, I'm so happy to finally be finished it! (Maybe I'll do it again next year)

Now....on to the New Testament.

Flip Flops

What’s something that used to be good but now is lame? Sugar snacks!
What’s something that used to be lame but now is good? Vegetables
What’s something you used to feel strongly about, but are now ambivalent about? Kids watching TV
What’s something you used to feel ambivalent about, but now have strong feelings about? Life Insurance (sounds lame I know...but if you knew how many people are ripped off by buying insurance products that have savings attached.....eesh!)
What’s something you used to dislike but now love? Steamed Milk!

Prank Patrol

Peirce is into pranks lately. Today he came up to me and said "Mom. I pranked you."

After not much prodding (he can't stand to keep a secret) he said, "Well, you're going to be surprised when you get in the shower." My first thought was that the snake was back (I'm still waiting for a chance to chop it up with an axe)

Then he said, "I put honey in your shampoo."

Grrrrrrrrrrr

Boy's Club

Allen and Peirce have this Boy's Club thing going on. Every now and then they take off and do something fun together. They even went and bought red ball caps and got them embroidered for Boy's Club and they wear their hats when they go on these excursions.


Tonight Jill is at a sleepover. I had sent Peirce to bed a number of times and he just wouldn't get to bed. We don't often have that problem....he's always just gone to bed when told. Tonight wasn't one of those nights. Finally he came to me with tears in his eyes and said, "Mom, I hate it when Jill isn't home. I just don't feel right when she's not home." So we talked, had a snuggle, we went over all the fun things we have to do tomorrow, we put a picture of Jill by his bed...but nothing helped....until finally Allen said, "Hey! This is a great night for Boy's Club!" They decided tonight was a great night to do something they've been planning to do all summer: sleep out on the trampoline.




I just love my husband. What a great dad he is!

Update: 20 minutes later this is what happened

They didn't like sleeping under the lightning going on out there. I checked weather.ca and it says we wont' have rain until 6 am...they decided they'd rather sleep inside anyway.

Oh well! Good thing it's a flexible club!

Let The Games Begin!

Last year Jill and I went in a 8K race. This was the beginning of an obsession for her....an obsession to compete in the Olympics. Today we watched the Opening Ceremonies. Just like usual, she got out her notebook and wrote down the things that inspired her and the things she thought were worthy of noting. She was a little disappointed to find out that after that everyone in Bejing was going to bed and that there wasn't going to be any competition to watch....so instead she and Peirce went outside and did an Olympic mural with sidewalk chalk. I just love the ideas they come up with when they're excited about something.

The Chinese Flag

A gold medal!

The Olympic Rings

Bug Olympics (Bug Olympics?? Some poor unsuspecting ants were recruited to play this)
I know you can't read this....but it is interesting Olympic facts that Jill learned watching the opening ceremonies today.
The podium for Gold, Silver and Bronze winners.

The torch relay

Armchair Theatre

Our city has some amazing Parks and Rec programs...and many of them are free. Tonight we went to the Armchair Theatre production they were putting on. The entertainment wasn't what we expected at all, but we quite enjoyed it.

They had a lady (whose name escapes me) that is a story-teller. She told a number of legends and other stories. I was really glad we went!! I really believe story telling is important for children (well, perhaps adults too). I believe it's the beginning steps of literacy and I think there is nothing better than a well-told story! It was interesting to see how the children there responded though. Many weren't interested. I would suspect that they're more interested in being entertained by stories on film and TV that are much more animated and mesmerizing. It took a little discipline for some of those kids to sit there and continue to listen. I think it's a natural skill that is perhaps a little lost in our time.

At the event tonight they had popcorn and juice boxes and a lady painting faces. What more could a kid ask for?!

Low Carb??? Pfffft! Who Cares?!!! You Should Try This!!

I've been thinking lately that I need to go back to making bread. With the rising cost of flour good bread is getting more and more expensive...more than I want to pay for it anyway. I don't like cheap bread and the good bread is more than I want to pay. Besides, I have Nana's Bosche mixer and it's almost sacreligious to let that just sit in the cupboard. I also have Mom's wheat grinder so I can even grind my own wheat for it....which makes the most divine bread!!

So tonight I got started on the bread-making pursuit. I used my Nana Hyde's recipe for brown buns and made four loaves of bread and 15 buns. (Only I made it with mostly white flour...I had to whisper that or Nana would roll over in her grave...I promise I'll pull out the wheat grinder next time Nana!)

When J&P were at Grandma Camp they went to a hutterite colony and for a treat they gave them a bun with icing and pecans on it....so we tried that with our buns.

Oh. My. Goodness.

I definitely have a new favorite treat to indulge in. AMAZING!!


....the Provident Pantry people in my stake would be so proud of me. I didn't have to run to the store for any of this...and I could do it again tomorrow. (But I really shouldn't) ......but maybe I will :0) Or maybe I should just run to the store with my own two feet....I might need to do that actually.

Cornelia Funk Here We Come!

It's finally over. Jill finished the last Happy Potter book today. It has been quite entertaining to listen to her as she's read those books. When Peirce reads sometimes he has to get up and act out parts of the book....she gets the shivers and lets out audible gasps and has to close the book to catch her breath. I love that.

She's decided her next author to exhaust is Cornelia Funk. I tried to talk her into the Anne of Green Gables series...but it was a no go. Go figure.

I think Inkheart is the jump off point. I've been perusing the website. I just might have to join her in this reading adventure!

It's Out!

Peirce's tooth was hanging crooked this morning so we convinced him to let us tie a string to it. The plan was to tie it to the door handle and get it out that way - but he would not hear anything of the sort. He just wanted to tug on it. The string was quite long and I figured we didn't need to worry because he's probably trip on it. Sure enough he quickly made a prophetess out of his mother. A couple minutes later he was coming up the stairs and THUD! We were all held our breath. "Oh oh...is he going to cry?" ...and then we heard him shout, "YEA!! It came out!" Sure enough he had tripped on it.

I love these passages of life with my kids. He's VERY excited to have a tooth fairy visit tonight.

I Hate Snakes

A post over at Rocks in My Dryer reminded me of my hatred for snakes.

I hate snakes. I've never touched a snake. I never want to touch a snake. If I do touch a snake I hope I die so I don't have to remember it.

I know it's irrational. I've been told they're not slimey....and that they're really quite nice.

I don't care. I hate rates and I don't want to get over it. I tried to not show this fear to my children because I didn't want them knowing they could scare me with snakes...but they've seen right through that facade.

So, while my kids were at Grandma Camp they'd call often to let us know they were still alive. Once day Jill, with an excited lilt in her voice, told me that she got a pet snake. My response was that that was nice, but what was Grandma going to do with it when you leave? She told me she was bringing it home and I calmly and confidently told her she wasn't. She could decide...it's home or it's the snake...but never both. I told her I didn't believe her anyway because I knew Grandma would never buy a snake. She quickly replied that Grandma didn't buy it, Papa did. She had a comeback for everything I said....and while I was pretty sure Papa would never buy my kids a snake...my confidence was waning. Even when we went and picked them up it was in the back of my mind. But we didn't have anymore snake conversations so I relaxed.

Bad move.

Sunday morning I go to get in the shower. I didn't have much time because we had all slept in so long we were late for church. I hurriedly change and open up the shower door and WHAM!!! There's this huge snake coming up out of the drain pipe in our shower.

I knew it wasn't real....but it still made me scream....even just thinking about it now makes me feel sick.

I hate snakes.

I told Jill that if I see that snake again I won't be held accountable for what I do. It might just meet and axe and be chopped up in tiny bits (a snake experience from my childhood....now that's a good story). I haven't seen it since...but I know it's still around here.

Stupid snake.

I thought about adding a snake picture to this blog. Axed that idea. I hate snakes.

Happy Heritage Day

This afternoon we went out to Canmore to enjoy some time together as a family. It is so beautiful out there! I was recently talking with a man from Spain - the group leader from Mar's group. He said that when he went out to Banff and saw the lakes and mountains he just wanted to cry because it was so beautiful. Made me realize I need to appreciate what we have here just a little more!

This was taken up at Spray Lakes:

This is something weird we noticed on a lot of the flowers on our 'nature walk'. They had this stuff that looked like shaving cream in spots. Hmmmmmm...

Peirce spent most of his car time trying to get his loose tooth more loose while listening to me read Matilda out loud.

Chico loves the extra time on my lap.

Jill wasn't too into the scenery. It's all about the last 150 pages of the last Harry Potter book. 'Nuf said.
We went and bought a bunch of food from the Sobeys' Deli and had a picnic and played in the park and then went on a nature walk.

This picture makes me laugh because of the boy in the background. While we were having our picnic this boy and his dad were playing bongo drums. The boy would sometimes play drums with him and sometimes run around with this ribbon. It looked so fun! We really enjoyed watching them.

Our nature walk....

Throwing rocks is a past-time that can fill hours! I tried to get one of Jill as well but right when I was about to take some great shots Allen spied a mother duck teaching her babies to dive and find food and that was much more entertaining....so off we went!

Peirce is really getting good at monkey-bars these days. I measured him this morning and he has grown half an inch since his birthday four months ago! Good thing it's summer and he can wear shorts all the time...most of his pants are floods.

See that evil smile....

...it was here that she put poor Chico on a rock surrounded by water...not fun for a dog that really isn't that fond of water...especially cold mountain water!


We had a really great day. It's fun to spend time all together and take a day off now and then. We don't seem to do that too much!


We finished the day off with some ice cream in Cochrane at McKays! Can't pass through Cochrane without stopping there!

Learning Styles... a la Ackroyd

It has been interesting to see how our kids approach learning in two totally different ways.

Jill always wanted to do whatever it was she wanted to do. We went to those mom and tot swimming lessons. The teacher would say, "Let's sing Ring Around the Rosy" and Jill would pipe up, "Nah! Let's sing The Wheels on the Bus instead!" ...and it's just gone on from there. Once she has found something she wants to learn about she runs with it...and it seems to take over her life. I've had some wonderfully laid out plans now and then with things I thought would be wonderful for her to learn but have learned that unless it's her idea, it's rare it's going to take off quite like I envisioned.

A man ought to read just as inclination leads him; for what he reads as a task will do him little good.-Samuel Johnson

It's all good though. She always has an agenda and could spend all day working on whatever is her passion at the moment. She's gone through the Roald Dahl phase (read every book the guy has written for kids), the horse phase, the Harry Potter phase....and more. Whatever she's into she gets deep into it. My hope is that one year she'll have a teacher that will recognize this and be the kind of teacher that allows her to just run with it and build on her strengths. So far we've mostly had those kind of teachers who lock arms and move forward all together. She's learned that finishing work quickly only means more more....so she has mastered the art of classroom dawdling. Every year I have a conversation with her new teacher about Jill and her ability to work independently on something she loves....we'll see if this year pans out better than the previous years.

Peirce, on the other hand, is a different type of learner. He complies and works through stuff I give him. He has his own areas of interest, but he's pretty content to comply with things I hand him as well. He doesn't like to let on about how much he knows. I noticed that when we went to the Student Led Conferences last year. Mme Gover had some words on a pocket chart and I asked him to read them to me. The teacher was close by and so she led him in this endeavor. He slowly sounded out words that I knew he could read with ease (rat, cat, pat, fat, etc.) Seemed pretty clear to me then that he knew that was what he was supposed to be learning....so he pretended to be learning it. (Wouldn't want to fluster the teacher I guess!)

We were reading the Book of Mormon tonight after dinner. We didn't have his regular Book of Mormon reader that has the words all color-coded that he knows. Usually he reads his words and we read the others and it all goes tickety boo. Well, we couldn't find the book so he had to use a regular Book of Mormon...and when it came time for him to read his verse he read it...pretty much the whole thing! Who knew that kid could read like that?!

The other day I told him that there are less than 30 days before school starts. He gave a shriek and did that hockey player/football player move where they go down on one knee and do the pulled back clenched fist..."YES!" He was the one I always worried about...but man, school is his thing!! Give that kid a workbook and he'll fly through it. When I told him it the countdown was on for school he told me we ought to get practising - basically so that his brain is well oiled and ready to go I guess. So the last couple of days I've given him a workbook page to do from some workbooks someone in our neighborhood gave us a while ago wondering if we could use....and never did (did I ever mention I think workbooks are the worst practise/dill/teaching method there is?!...but the kid loves them...what can I do?!). I hadn't really had time to come up with anything too exciting....just slapped those workbooks on the table. I went about cleaning the kitchen and before I knew he it had finished 5 or 6 pages of the book. They were all things I thought I'd have to sit with him and work through with him. Nope. Easy as pie. This morning he did about 10 pages. I said, "Peirce, I think that's enough for one little boy." He was sure he could handle more.

It's quite interesting for me to see how unique they both are.

There are exactly four more weeks until the big day....the first day of school. This will be the first year for me that they'll both be in school full-time. 27 days to go!

We're All Together Again!

Today we went and picked up the kids from Grandma Camp. While Grandma and Papa were looking a little worn out....the rest of us sure felt great about the week! The kids have a wonderful time....and I have a wonderful time with the whole week to myself. Allen and I did a lot together and it was so fun! I don't think we've had such a long time just the two of us together since we became parents. It was great to spend that time together. I like him more and more all the time (and that's something!)

I so appreciate what my mom does with this Grandma Camp idea. She is creating wonderful memories for our kids and helping to create great bonds with her and the kids and amongst each other as cousins. Love it!

We got her a picture that we thought was quite appropriate. It said, "What happens at Grandma's stays at Grandma's."