She is Seven . . .and a little weekend in review

Most of you know that Mark and I are parents to fraternal twins - girl/boy - who are grown-ups now! Our oldest granddaughter is 10 (daughter of our son) and the other two (7 and 2) belong to our daughter. We celebrated that big SEVEN birthday this weekend.

Mark and I packed an overnight bag and headed south on Friday morning. We were pleasantly surprised that the traffic was not HORRIBLE. It usually is. We arrived at our daughter's house around 11:00. She went to run a couple of errands which included picking up McDonald's for her two girls. While she was gone, we tried to play outside. It was a million degrees. Seriously.

After lunch, the little went down for her nap and we let the big SEVEN year old open her gift from us.

The main gift was a new backpack for school. This Gran had to include some fun, so there were two new toys for Milo (birthday kitty) and a sewing project.

We needed a "quiet" activity to do while the little was asleep. She did a great job making the kitty cat.

Look at that cutie pie!

Above she is holding the kitty we sewed . . .

and below she is holding the real Milo!

Laura and I hopped in the car that afternoon to run a couple of quick errands. We stopped by her school so that I could see her room.

Her reading area is so cute! She will be teaching 3rd grade again this year and is excited. She took a one year break by teaching kindergarten, but is ready to be back with 3rd graders!

On Friday night, we headed to a local restaurant - Coach's Corner - and the other set of grandparents met us there.

The restaurant is located on the Coosa River in downtown Wetumpka.

It was still so hot outside.

After dinner, we walked down along the river. I love these sculptures.

Just FYI - there is a really nice park in downtown Wetumpka right along the river.

Mark and I ended up bumming a ride with the other grandparents because our rock star seven year old had gotten a little car sick on the way to the restaurant. They live less than a mile from Laura's house.

Look at this sweet kitty. He is so tiny!

Things didn't work out as originally planned. So our daughter and son-in-law do not have an extra bedroom for us. Last time, I slept with Laura. Mark slept on the bottom bunk bed and Scott slept on the sofa . . .but remember how someone felt carsick . . .she still didn't feel well. She needed to sleep in mommy and daddy's beds and so our sleeping arrangements went south quickly. I called the other grandparents and asked if we could sleep at their house. Let me just say . . we had our own bedroom and bathroom and they live less than a mile away. We headed to their house at bedtime and they were gracious hosts. We may do that again!

The big Pawty (get the kitty reference?) started at 11:00 and at 10:55 . . .the company showed up to deliver the ginormous water bouncy.

Thank goodness that everyone felt fine on Saturday morning!

It was a gorgeous day . . .but hot as you know where!

The birthday girl is third from the left on the back row - surrounded by neighbors and friends. Our sweet 10 year old granddaughter was a real trooper. She was the oldest one there.

We sang happy birthday (oh - we ate Papa John's pizza first!) and she blew out her candles. Laura bought a seven paw print candle but it was nowhere to be found when needed.

She opened her presents.

She thanked everyone and was excited about every gift.

Around 1:15 or so we headed back to Birmingham. We plugged home into Waze and the drive time was ridiculous on I65 North . . .so we wound through the countryside and headed to Highway 280. It is a longer route BUT it would be a rare day for I65 to not become a parking lot. I'm so glad we did the scenic route.

We were tired when we got home. We both rode our stationary bikes. I made waffles and turkey sausage for dinner.

I headed to work on Sunday morning and we only had one car (one in the shop). I was leading the Affirmation of Faith, saying the pastor prayer, and leading the Lord's Prayer at the 11:00 worship service so Mark came just in time for Sunday School and then stayed for the 11:00 service. We saw one of our young adults at the service and invited her to go out to lunch with us. We headed to ZoZo's and enjoyed eating and chatting with her.

After lunch we headed home. I ordered groceries, rode my bike, wrote a paper for my class, and Mark helped me make the Firecracker casseroles for Tuesday night. We both read for a little while and watched one episode of Patience and went to bed.

It was a good weekend! How was your weekend?