Grandparent's Day

This past Friday was our sixth Grandparent's Day with our youngest grandchild, Ava Grace.

She is in the fifth grade, so we started attending this special day with her at Prestonwood Christian Academy when she was in Kindergarten.

They begin the day with a time of worship, always started with four of the Kindergarten children leading in the pledges to the American and Christian flags and the Bible, then one leads the huge gathering in prayer.  This actually is my favorite part, because it amazes me at the poise of these precious children and the sweet, honest prayer of a 5 year old.

Then the entire Kindergarten sings the song about "This is grandma's glasses and grandpa's hat...", which always gets a lot of smiles and claps from all the grandmas and grandpas.

The time in the sanctuary is a worship service which I so appreciate being part of.

We then go to the classrooms to meet the teachers and see where our girl sits for each of her classes.  She changes classrooms and teachers for the first time this year, so that was different.

This year, they had the fifth and sixth graders meet in an assembly room for refreshments which was also different.  But made sense.

We had fun letting Ava Grace select the props for our memory pictures.  Another new thing.

 Proud Grandfathers, Grandpa and Daddea

 Proud Grandmothers, Grandma and Bibby

It is so hard to believe our littlest girl is growing up so fast.  Each of her teachers spoke so highly of her and assured us they love having her in their class.  No surprise to us!

The next morning, we were able to attend her volleyball game which consists of fellow fifth grade buddies who have been playing together for three years.

Yes, they won!

We are so grateful that Ava Grace is able to attend such an amazing Christian school where she is getting not only a great education, but where she is learning spiritual truths and making friendships that will last a lifetime.

Grandparent Road Trips

Joyce gave us a heads up that there will be no Hodgepodge next week.  We all need a fall break at some point.  So, I will see you back here on the 25th.  In the meantime, join the rest of the Hodgepodgers on Joyce's Blog to see their answers.

1. On a scale of 1-10 how would you rate your sense of direction? 1=can't find my way out of a paper bag and 10=if I've been somewhere once I can find it blindfolded ten years later.

I'm a pretty good 7 or 8.

When was the last time you looked at/used a map you could hold in your hand? (phones don't count!) 

In the summer when we went to Mackinaw Island.  I usually do MapQuest on the computer before we leave for a lengthy, first-time trip, then print out certain enlarged screenshots of the map.  We also use our Garmin and iPhone.

back east, down south, out west, up north

Choose one of these directional expressions and tell us why you chose it.

Up North!  Because we have decided it's time to go see our "up north" family.  Of course only six weeks later we'll turn around and go back up north for Christmas.  It's nice to be able to do just-because things sometimes.  By the way, our up north collegiate soccer player got a pretty bad concussion when a very hard kicked soccer ball hit her in the face a couple weeks ago.  She is still having some problems, but is improving.  Scary!

2. Did you do more talking or listening yesterday? Is that typical? Describe your yesterday in one word.

Most of my days involve very little talking.  My listening is mostly to music rather than conversation and no day-time TV.  As this will post on Wednesday and I'm writing on Tuesday, I will project and say that my day will again be spent mostly listening.  I had Pilates at 5:30 AM where I listened and will later have handbell choir, which requires very little talking and a lot of listening.  One word?  So far, its been"Peaceful!"

3. Time, money, water-power-resources, opportunity...which one on the list are you most guilty of wasting? What might you do to change that?

It would probably be time because I have the liberty of choosing what I want to do with it.  Some days are more productive than others.  I don't know that I want to change it.  I feel sure I also waste opportunities to do things that would benefit others as well as myself.

4. Did  your family take regular vacations when you were a kid? Tell us something you remember about a family road trip from your own childhood.

No, we did not.  The only road trips we took were to see family who lived on extreme opposite ends of our home state.  Mother would always pack food for eating and if we needed a bathroom stop, it was along the highway in the bushes and trees.  I remember as a small child riding on a pillow in the middle of the front seat between mother and daddy and thinking what a big girl I was.  There were no car seat restraints or laws in those days.

5. If you could grow anything you wanted, what would you grow? Why?

Watermelons in the middle of an herb garden.  We can never get enough watermelons in the summer and I love growing and picking my own herbs.

6. Insert your own random thought here.

This weekend we will be going to our youngest grandchild's Grandparent's Day.  Needless to say, she is the only grandchild young enough to still be having this.  Actually, her school, Prestonwood Christian Academy in Plano, Tx, makes a really big deal of Grandparent's Day.  We always start the morning with a joint worship service where there will be at least a couple thousand in attendance.  Then we visit the classroom.  She is now in the 5th grade which they consider Middle School.  I would rather not think about that.

We have gone every year, but for some reason I could only find pictures of the last three.  We enjoy sharing this day with our Ava Grace and her other grandparents, Charles and Sandra.

It will be a fun weekend and I'll tell you about it another time.

Grandparent's Weekend

What a joy to be able to enjoy Grandparent's Day with a grandchild.

We love being able to enjoy it with our littlest one.

Ava Grace, is a 2nd grader at Prestonwood Christian Academy in Plano, Texas.

This special day begins with a joint worship service for all classes K-12 and grandparents.  As you can imagine, this would be a couple thousand folks.

Then we go to the classrooms

 These children receive such a wonderful Christian education.

Here the children are quoting Psalm 1:1-6.

 

 Afterward, we enjoyed a trip to Yogurtland.

Friday night, all of the lower grade children were featured during half-time of the PCA football game, and AG is ready to go.

It was a beautiful Texas evening.

  This is what 600+ children look like dancing on a football field.

 And thanks to a zoom lens, this is our little one and two of her best friends.

Saturday afternoon we enjoyed watching our little girl play soccer.

 

 She made the first goal and they won 5-0.

   I think we have two soccer players on our hands.

 

 

 She is reminding her dad that he owes her $2 for making a goal.

 Two of her big college sisters were there to root her own.

These are a few of my favorites.

 We love being grandparents!

We love being able to spend time with our grandchildren!

We are grateful for this time in our lives and for God's blessings on each of our seven (7) special ones.