Grampa's Day/Cullinary School

If it's a rainy day, Grampa likes to take Nolan to an indoor park.

Fortunately for Nolan and Grampa, McDonald's has an indoor park.

They also have yogurt parfait, that Nolan can have without granola sprinkles.

The parfait was the perfect ending to their rainy day adventure.

Grampa couldn't wait for Friday.

He picked Nolan up on Wednesday and the "boys" headed to Santa's Village.

Grampa had to ban Nolan from the two-story slide with a treehouse at the top.

Instead of going down the slide, 

Nolan liked to stay at the top and direct traffic as others came down the slide.

He gets his organizational skills from his daddy,

who used to organize the neighborhood's street hockey games,

when he was seven.

Nolan rides anything he meets the height requirement on.

He checks his measurement for all of the rides

and can't wait until he's four feet tall.

He's presently 3 ft. 1 in.

They did Tilt-a-Whirl two times in a row.

They did it after lunch.

I don't know if that was a smart idea, or not.

The swinging dragon boat is the most lethal ride, in my opinion.

Grampa and Nolan did it four times.

It tied with the carousel.

Nolan has no fear of any ride.

He has learned to listen for other people on the rides to scream,

to know when he should start.

He screams smiling.

Santa's Village is a great place to see many animals.

Nolan is very interested in getting a really good look at the ducks.

After lunch, the magician came to Nolan's table 

and made a scarf appear and disappear.  

Then he turned the scarf into a gold coin,

but Nolan wasn't at all sure about spending time with a stranger.

Even Santa got a cold shoulder from Nolan.

He likes using the bathrooms at Santa's Village.  

They have urinals that are VERY low to the ground.

I think Grampa must have to kneel at those.

The hand dryers are also very low.

And when you come home,

it's great to know someone is soooo happy to see you.

News from the California Gentlemen

Nathan and Andrew are taking a cooking class.

They are going to cook as well as Grampa someday.

They're already working on one of Grampa's favorite foods.

And the best part of any cooking class is eating.

Father's Day/Summer Arrives

"I found this near my dolly.  

I don't think my dolly needs a bottle."

"I don't know how my dolly gets the milk out!?"

I think Nolan likes to sit in this chair to play with the Xoom, 

so there's no room for Seth to sit near him.

Seth spent the morning practicing getting up and down 

from the couch.

Nolan enjoys a glass that lights up on the bottom.

Even water tastes better in a sparkly cup.

Nolan wants to let more light in the room.

He doesn't know that Grampa likes to sit here day after day in the dark.

Seth is finally big enough to help Grampa and Nolan water the flowers.

He has no idea his watering chameleon is empty.

Most of it went on his shoes.

The "boys" do a great job watering.

It takes a long time to water all the flowers at Grampa's house.

It's hard not to lose one of the boys, since the tend to go in opposite directions.

Seth thinks he is also big enough to ride Nolan's bike.

Seth likes Gramma's picture hat.

He just needs eyeholes cut in the brim.

"Let's try taking our nap here.

Grampa can take his in our room."

"Do you like my hat?"

"I do not like it."

"Hello again.  Do you like my hat?"

"I do.  I like your party hat."

"My Daddy made this phone."

We celebrated Father's Day together.

Nolan decided to go upstairs to his room.

He managed to lock the door 

to one of the upstairs bathrooms and his bedroom.

Fortunately, he was not in the room.

I wanted to let Nolan know he was not in trouble.

I asked if he wanted to come with me and help me unlock the door.

Nolan, who is always anxious to help, 

was delighted to see how the problem would be solved.

We had plenty of experience with this problem 

when Rebecca would lock Matt out of her room.

We took off for upstairs and found the necessary tool to open the lock.

But the tool didn't work on either door.

It looked as if we might have to sell the house 

minus a bedroom and a bathroom.

I told Nolan Gramma and Grampa would solve the problem.

Nolan has faith in Grampa, so he was okay with it.

Grampa couldn't get the doors to open, either.

I told him it was a good thing we had a balcony to Nolan's room.

Grampa did his Romeo imitation and unlocked the doors from the inside.

If we had had a balcony when Matt and Rebecca were little, 

we would have found at least one of them on the ladder.

News from the California Gentlemen

Harvesting apricots over the fence.

The neighbor approves of sharing.

If we could only bottle his joy!

Summertime means pool time.

Surf's up.

Busy Boys, Busy Weekend

Seth and Nolan have arrived for an extended stay,

while Mommy and Daddy fly off to Oklahoma, 

where the wind comes rushing o'er the plain.

Seth is anxious to get to work.

He has a lot planned, including shopping.

At first we wondered what Seth was doing in the pantry.

He thankfully was not after the Miller Lite,

or as Matt says "Old Man's Beer."

He and Nolan wanted the water bottles.

ALL the water bottles.

Seth and Nolan had been to Kohl's Children's Museum and enjoyed the store there.

They located their store on the kitchen table.

It included water, boxed broth, pastas, beans; 

basically everything on the lower shelves of the pantry.

Seth decided he would open a coffee shop.

Later they opened a restaurant, as well.

Nolan was the waiter, and needs to work on his delivery, 

or his tips may suffer.

He came up to the customer's table and gruffly said, 

"What do you want?" 

But the customer took no notice and ordered lots to eat.

The service was speedy, which made up for the food being a bit tasteless.

We have branched out from manhole covers.  

Who knew these were here?

And why are they here?

And how do you get them open?

And why are they green?

Gramma and Nolan are baking black bean brownies today.

Nolan has his Grampa's passion for cooking.

He even volunteers to do the tasting.

While Nolan was cooking, he decided to try an apple.

I found this after we cleaned up.

It's a good thing Gramma uses real apples for decorations.

We worked on our T-ball.

Gramma's invention from Andrew and Nathan's days

still seemed to work.

We had to improvise for Seth's batting tee.

It was much closer to golf tee height.

His stroke looks more like a golfer's as well.

Nolan on the other hand is ready for the big leagues.

Notice Grampa's tree branches.

These are what are left after a day of sawing firewood.

And we enjoyed some water time.  

It took about 10 seconds before Seth was soaked.

Note to self: don't change his diaper just before water activities.

Naptime is over.  We had to wake them.

Even Seth is too sleepy to realize it's snack time.

Seth enjoys his piano lessons.

The first step is to feel the rhythm.

His dancing ability is showing again.

Gramma's lilac bouquet shed all over the table.

But Nolan had an idea for how to clean it up.

Grampa might have to make a wider foot stool.

Seth is not about to miss the action.

Grampa and the boys prepared Gramma's coconut.

Once you poke the coconut in a couple of eyes,

you must drain the water.

The best part is cracking it open with a hammer.

Nolan gives Daddy a few tips on a game.

Daddy impresses Nolan with his skill.

News from the California Gentlemen

Ryan Joseph now has a chauffeur.

And Andrew has a back seat driver.

Andrew takes center stage.

Something tells me this won't be the last time.

And you can't be a performer without an audience.

The boys are kindergarten graduates.