How many days till Christmas
Play a game and see
Remember Christmas is Jesus Birthday
He came for you and me

Ask your Parents for a treat from Grandpa and Grandma

Preparing for Christmas

Grandpa and I are getting ready for you all to come and we are excited. Today we had a snowstorm and tonight a blizzard. We used the day to work on preparation. Here is Grandpa making cookies. He is making HIS favorite kind, chocolate chip and look closely and you can see his new cookie scoop he got. He thinks it is cool. This is not the best picture but the tree is up and ready and today I got all of you guys presents wrapped.

Here I am wrapping the presents. Today I took my time and I actually had fun. The one I'm working on is Emily's.

New Playground

Look what is new at my school. We got this new set up for our playground. The kids are so excited. We will be able to use it for the first time on Monday. All you kids will have to check it out when you come to Meriden. Well maybe not Emily and Alise :) A big thanks to all you tax payers out there as this of course came from a government grant.

Grandpa's Tree House

Grandpa's tree house is really coming along. Only one more wall to go up. He is having so much fun building it. He has a few more ideas. It is starting to look like alot of fun. We want a name for this special housel Everyone send in your ideas, Grandpa and I will choose.

A Recipe

Here is a fun recipe that people always enjoy. I thought it would be a fun one for kids to do. You could make it for your family sometime. Let me know if you try it.

Corn-Macaroni Casserole

1can cream style corn
1can whole kernel corn (drained)
1can grated or cubed Velveeta cheese
1can milk
1can small elbow macaroni
1stick oleo

Combine all and put in 9x13 pan
Bake at 325 for 1 hour

This is fun because everything is 1 can. Remember it need to cook for 1 hour so you have to plan ahead a little. I take it to pot lucks and it is always gone. Have fun. Love, Grandma

Grandpa's Treehouse

Here is Grandpa working away on the tree house. He has been having such a good. Hopefully some boys and girls will enjoy playing in it as much as he has enjoyed building it. It is truely a labor of love. Tonight I traveled up the ladder to see what the view was from up there. It is cool. Next the sides go up.

Summer 09 Fun

What a wonderful summer Grandpa and I have had sharing life with our precious grandchildren. We have enjoyed every moment and thank God daily for the blessing of our 8 wonderful grandchildren with whom he has blessed us for now. Hope you have fun reliving the memories. I did!

Fun At The Dells

A Fun Place

This was a fun day wasn't it. I loved being at the Ostercamp house.

Ariel View of Luk's Farm

We have now added a lego house and a lego 4 wheeler.

Luke's visit

Here is Luke in the beginning stages of creating a table sized farm. We had alot of fun making this farm and playing with it since.

This is the duck pond, complete with real water. You see the ducks are sunning on the rocks. This is the field Luke drew.

The horse coral complete with marshmellow hay bales.

The chicken pen. As you can see they have just been fed.

The cow field. Some cows are drinking water. The milking parlor is directly behind the field.

Another Grandma Favorite

I love 4 and 5 year olds. They are the best. The things they say are so funny. They are so honest and so delightful to talk to. They make everyday fun. Here is one of my all time favorites. This little girl had so many problems but she was a barrel of fun and I loved her. I pray that I gave her two great years in a life more troubled than any little girl should have to endure. I thank God daily that I got to spend so many hours with children. A not so secret secret, even though I love them I don't tolerate much nonsense. I do think children should and can behave.

Easter Baskets

I found the picture of the Easter Baskets that I mention in the next entry. I had to take a picture of a picture and it isn't great, but you can get the idea. Now to find the actual Easter baskets.

Easter

What a golorious wonderful time is Easter. It has always been my absolute favorite holiday. Easter is filled with glorious hope and promise. Because of the resurrection we can face each and every tomorrow. When Christ came out of the grave he destroyed forever the power of the devil. I love singing the songs at church and I love the wonderful story from the scripture. Years ago we always had a sunrise service and I loved that. I also love celebrating by wearing something new. I feel like I dress up for Jesus, or dress up for the big celebration party. My Easter secret is that I also love Easter baskets. I made myself feel better about them by always labeling them He Is Risen!! One year I got it into my head to make each girl, including Liz a fabric Easter basket. Time got short and I had too much to do. I remember staying up late the night before Easter finishing those baskets and crying because I was exhausted. My reward was a darling picture. Right now I don't know where the picture or the baskets are. Celebrate Jesus!!

Yet Another Favorite

A hot, hot, hot, hot, bath with bubbles. For as long as I can remember I have taken a hot bath each night before I go to bed. This totally relaxes me and gives me just a little alone time in my day. It has become over the years one of my very favorite things. As I have grown older it soothes my aching bones and feels wonderful. I like to read in the tub and have a basket of magazines and books right where I can reach. That brings me to my bathtub secrets. Twice I have dropped a church library book into the water when I fell asleep. Of course I woke up with a start and grabbed the book. A blow dryer has helped to rescue it somewhat. I've never told the librarian My last secret is that my cat lies right beside my tub every night and occasionally likes to lap at the warm water. Try this, you might like it. :)

Another Grandma O favorite

God's word is a precious favorite of mine. Reading its words encourages me, calms me, makes me think, inspires me, gives me courage, gives me hope and makes my heart sing. A couple of secret facts are, I am trying to memorize a verse from every book in the Bible. That little notebook is where I keep track of the ones I am learning. I started in Matthew and have one down for every book through Phillipians. I still have a ways to go. Would anyone want to join me in this challenge? At night when I wake up I say my verses until I go back to sleep. I love doing this. Another secret is that when Larry is gone overnight I sleep with my Bible. I am not sure why, I just like to do that. One of my prayers is that God's Word will be special to each of my grandchildren.

Favorite Things

I decided to do something new. I am going to start a "series" of favorite things of Grandma O. I thought it would fun to remember someday. So here goes with the first thing. Let me know if you enjoy the same things as me or if you think I am weird. Ha

Favorite Things

Nothing is better than a dish of ice cream with chocolate sauce. It makes everything wonderful. I could eat it anytime of the night or day. Some of my ice cream secrets include I have gotten up in the middle of the night and had some, I like to pour the chocolate sauce onto the ice cream in the carton and eat directly from the carton (saves a dish) but it is hard to stop that way. (No I don't serve it to company after that), and I love to eat ice cream while taking a bath.

Fun with Josiah

A few weeks ago we had fun with Josiah. He and his Dad and Mom came for a visit. He delighted us with his smiles, laughs, and hugs. He really loved our basketball. It was a great visit'

Grandpa's Train

Grandpa went to a sale that a school that was closing down had. He was quite excited about this train set that he found for $3.00. It is a nice set complete with 2 trains and two cool bridges. He sat it up and tried it out on the dinning room table. Now he is anxious for some little boys to play with. He also got a bucket of large legos. Way to go Grandpa!

Grandpa's Idea

Grandpa has a new idea for summer fun. He wants to have a picnic on the church roof. He claims that it is fairly flat up there and he thinks it would be fun. One problem is if Grandma could get up there? I do think Jonny and Joey are to little for sure and we might want to put Natalie in a harness ha. Grandpa is determined about this and loves to tell people that we are going to do it. So prepare yourselves. I do think it is better than his idea of cutting off a chickens head, although he hasn't completely given up on that either.

Oh lonesome me.

Hi Emily, Alise, Luke, Natalie, Jonathan, and Josiah. This grandmas is lonesome. Last night we had some church friend over. They were interested in seeing pictures, so grandpa and I had fun showing you all off and bragging on you a little. Hope you are all okay. It has been along time since I blogged. I need to get better. Here is a fun craft idea. Draw an outline of something, like a butterfly. Then get colorful pieces of tissue paper and tear into little pieces and glue in the outline you made. Makes a very colorful picture. You could even turn it into a card for someone. I love you all

A Fun Book

Have you guys read this book? It is one of my favorites. If you have't read it I know you could get it from your school or public library. The Author, Jan Brett has written several, and they are all fun. Some of them seen a little hard for my preschoolers but they love this one. After we had read it, we acted it out. We used the blanket as a mitten. The children were different animals and they all crawled inside. At the sneeze the blanket and all the children went flying. What fun. It is fun to pick an author and then see if you can read all the books that he/she has written.