Grandma's Getting Her Grandkid Fix Again !!!

Saturday, April 11th - Sunday, May 31st

One of our first nights with the kids, I took the girls to watch the play Princess and the Pea in the nearby town of Clancy where they used to live.  The grade school put it on with the assistance of the Missoula Children's Theater group that travels around to assist schools with theater productions.

It was very cute and one of Tierney's friends was one of the dust bunnies.

Picnic at the park to celebrate both of the girl's adoption birthdays, which just conveniently happen to fall on the same date.  Maybe they can manage to get all the future kids adopted on the same day, so it can be one great big family celebration every year.

Oh, Oh!  Twice down the baby slide and we created a monster.

He found the steps to the big slide and headed right up....

and slid right down laughing all the way.  Every time he got to the bottom, he headed right up the steps again!

We could just see his wheels spinning.  "How did they do that?  I can do that."

Just a couple of hams, if you ask them to smile.  Well, most of the time, anyway.

"Look at me.  Look what I did.  Now how am I going to get out of here?"

"Yeah, Mom and Dad are gone and Grandma let us have macaroni and cheese and pancakes for lunch!"

We took the girls and the little guy to the Vigilante Parade, so Mom and Dad could get started with the bathroom remodeling project.  This float was portraying a shot gun wedding.

This one showed a jail break and an attempted lynching.

This one was the cutting down of the hanging tree.  It was a really long parade with lots of  interesting floats covering the whole state's history from fur traders, to outlaws, to pioneers, ranchers, rodeo, all kinds of past and current businesses and sports and recreation clubs and activities.  

This was the hospital float depicting three different rooms with surgery going on, a baby being delivered and other patient care.  Some businesses, including the hospital, had several floats each.  It was really a very good parade.

This float showing Jack Dempsey vs. Tommy Gibbons took place July 4, 1923 in Shelby,Montana.  It was a scheme to bring some fame and fortune to the town of Shelby and instead bankrupted the town.  There is a book about it called Shelby's Folly.  Montana was the site of two world heavyweight championship bouts.  The other was in 1884.

After the parade we had to play in the park a while and pick some dandelions for Mom.

Another day we took the girls to a fundraiser event at the fairgrounds.  Tierney was playing a Candy Land game with Cinderella and Belle and a few other kids.  When the music stopped, they would draw a color and if you were standing on that color, you got a sucker.  As you can see, she was trying to double her chances.

Meanwhile, Tally was having fun at the beach.

It's not every day you get to ride a whale!

Then they moved on to the bouncy houses,

of which they never seemed to get enough.

I thought this looked like a fun game, toss a roll of toilet paper in the toilet and win a prize.  For some reason they weren't interested in giving this a try.

Instead they waited in line to get balloon animals, make bracelets and get their nails polished.  Then we finished up with cotton candy and a snow cone and headed home.

Then they arranged all their little tables on the deck and started running a restaurant.

Then guess who pulled up a chair and said, "Can I play, too?"  To which I heard, "No Grandma, he always wrecks everything."

But he said, "Never mind,

 I've got a better idea."

Digger's wagging tail is as tempting as a ball of yarn is to a cat.  He also sits on him, lays on him, climbs on his back like a step stool to get up on the couch, hugs him, and grabs him by the ears, nose, eyes, wherever he can get a hold.  Once in a while Digger tries to hide from him, but mostly he puts up with it all and always follows him if he goes outside to keep an eye on him.  What an awesome dog!

"Look Mom, I can help.  I put the toys away."

"Alright, nobody's watching.  If I stand up on this box, I can play the piano.  Cool."

"I made it up into my high chair.  If nobody stops me, I think I can get up onto the table and get all

that stuff to play with.

 

"I know you said 'No', but Digger really likes it when I mix his food in his water and throw it all around.  Besides, it's just so much fun!"  "That's it!  That's the last straw!  You're out of here, buddy."

"Finally.  Thank you.  I've been trying to get outside all day."

"Make a funny face, Grandma."

The Easter Bunny.

"Do you like my new hairdo?"

Grandpa and his buddy trying to escape from the girls and all their princess and ballerina drama.

The picnic table makes a great sandbox when you turn it upside down.

"Fight with me, Grandma."

Grandpa's girls.

Carter had a four day baseball tournament in Missoula over Memorial weekend.  So we drove down on Saturday and Monday to watch some of his games.

There is a really nice park right next to the ball field and we got there a little early both days, so the kids could play for a while before the games.

"Ooh, Grandma, my tooth is sooo loose!"

Next day.

The girls were running a play dough bakery and trying to feed it all to Grandpa.

We came home from somewhere and the girls found a cedar wax wing that had crashed into the window and fallen on the patio table below.  They brought it a little plate with some water and watched over it, but it died about a half hour later.

Beautiful double rainbow.  Picture taken from the deck.

The almost finished bathroom the kids have been working on while we were here.

Well, as usual, "We've laid around and played around this old town too long and it looks like we're bound to travel on."  We ended up staying longer than we planned, about seven weeks, but it is so much fun.  We are totally worn out and it takes us a few days to recuperate after we leave.  We stopped for gas in Billings and saw what we'll be living in, if we run out of money.  We sure see a lot of these little tear drop trailers in campgrounds and they are so cute, but I surely hope we never have to live in one.  We will be visiting friends and family for the summer, so I probably won't blog again until the end of August.

Have a great summer!
Tarra