Kayla Pure and Beloved

We don't get to see Kayla nearly often enough.  Kayla is such a delightful child.  I looked up the meaning of her name -- Pure and Beloved is the Irish version.  It is also a variant of Kay which means keeper of the Keys in the English translation.  Kayla is now 13 and has had a pronounced growing streak.  She will probably always be small.   What a joy to watch Kayla grown into teenager as she moves toward adulthood.

So here she is.  A little lady who marches to her own drum.  Enjoys her own creations.  And lives in her world of hopes and dreams of her own making.  Kayla should go far in life.    She is not so much into the girlie, girlie stuff.  She like bats and stuffed toys and art and the such.  When Hailey had a nail painting party, Kayla insisted it was much too girlie for her.    She may enjoy more than she lets on. 

She is the girl who loves her hair in her face.   And if you want her to smile for a photo....good luck.   I work hard for those perfect smiling photos.

http://tailsxcosmofans.deviantart.com/art/sonic-riders-cosmo-33350646

http://www.meaning-of-names.com/english-names/kayla.asp

Now I am wondering if we ever posted Kayla's 13th Birthday party Movie...just in case, here it comes

Rosemary's Shopping Spree On Her 9th Birthday

Today is Rosie's 9th Birthday.  Nana's morning job was cancelled we decided on a personal shopping trip to the mall. Rosie was so excited.  We stopped to take a photo by the pansies outside the Mall, but it was tttttttoooooo cold and tooooo windy.  We decided to try photos inside the Mall.

We entered by the food court.  Ahhhh this is much better, no wind in our eyes.   But the important part is the shopping for Rosie.

Come on, lets go!    Of course we stopped in a few shops on the way to the Justice Store.

 Who can not help but gaze briefly  at the ice cream shop and the CinnaABun too.

We looked around to see what we could see.   Rosie is interested in Zebra Stripped items.

We found some zebra slip on shoes but they were pretty expensive and made of satin looking cloth.  Rosie loved them but they would have taken half of the budget.  We'd better look more.

The Children's Place Store has cute things but many of them are for tiny little girls.  Rosie is growing big.

The Children's Place Store had tons of flip flops.

Let's go downstairs, I think that is where the Justice Store is.

They did have zebra things, but when it came to making a decision, the selections were pink and purple and such as that.       She picked out an adorable peach colored top which we did not get a photo of.  And instead of a Zebra webkinz, she found a puppy.

I asked her if she was ready to eat or go to Macy's.  Her choice was Macy's.  So back up we go.

Most of the Birthday Budget was spent already so we had to be very careful to look for one or two things, and see if there was enough left.    Rosie could not narrow it down to only one item so two were selected.

A fancy silkey feeling dress and a casual two piece -- everything purple.

Now we are ready for lunch and Chick Fil A was the choice for the Day.

After lunch, Rosie was ready to go home.  She said she knew there were more presents at home waiting for her.  Happy Birthday Sweet Nine Year Old Rosie!

Sydney Prepares For Her First Sparing Match

Sydney at her testing for Yellow Belt.  This requires that she spar with some bigger boys.....green belts.  Brave Sydney.

Friday Night Date With Five GrandKids

 Every once in a while, we just need to have a date with a few grand kids.  So when Lincoln  Christain Academy announced they were doing WILLY WONKA JR, I bought a few tickets and invited a few little friends to go with Papa and Nana.    Going out with grandchildren tends to include eating out some place that kids like.   This time it was a trip to Steak and Shake.

So Nana passed out the party hats and for the girls, scarves and we took off to fill some hungry tummies before the show.   Steak and Shake, here all seven of us come.   I think the boys may have been a bit embarrassed with their hats (even though I have a feeling that they liked them.  It took a bit of coaxing to get Elijah to keep his on long enough for the photo shots.  However the hats and scarves were a tremendous hit with the girls.  They came from Sam Moon in Dallas the last time we went to visit Sydney and Blakely.

While we waited for our orders to arrive, Devin became curious about the pepper sauce.  If you give Devin a dare, he is going to take it and before it was over, he had eaten more than one.   Elijah ate the peppers also but I did not get a photo of him.    Those boys would not admit it but there was some watery eyes and drinks of water after the pepper eating challenge. 

The girls really wanted to order the great big Shakes but I talked them out of it ... I didn't want them too wild or too sick to enjoy Willy Wonka.   But the boys ..... that is a different story. 

After the meal, we headed off to COTM's 180 building for the production.  It was difficult to get clear photos in the auditorium but I gave it a try.   We went forty minutes early because it was open seating.   But we were still sitting about two-thirds of the way back.    The automatic pass time for the next forty minutes for the girls was scarf and hat games.   They fixed them every which way.

And for the boys, papa was showing them what he could on his IPhone....he also showed them the gun he is hoping to buy.   gggrrrrrr.

And the girls found endless things to do.

Then the show began.  Those kids were wonderful.

And the talent was amazing.  They could sing....everyone one of them. 

That is Willy on center left with Charlie next with his dad and then the other winning kids. 

After the show, there were cookies and Wonka candy which made some grand kids HAPPY. 

And the cast were standing around signing autographs and available to taking photos.  We had a ton of fun. 

So once the play was over, we set out to return those revved up kids to their  parents.  That is the good part of grandparenting.   Thanks Kids for being our grandchildren and being sweet, beautiful, Godly young ladies and gentlemen.  YOU ARE THE BEST!

My North Carolina Grandkids

Carson shows off what he bought with his Birthday gift money -- the newest DXI XL.  He received money from several people to make it enough.  Carson claims he is the last kid in his class at school to get a DXI.  And Ava shows off what she picked our with her Valentine gift card from Cracker Barrel.

Devin and Hailey's Birthday Celebration

 Seems we have not celebrated family gatherings with Devin and Hailey on their birthday for a long time.  So for the last 3 or 4 years, we have planned a little grandparent/grandkid outing with them sometime in the  season of birthdays.  Hailey turned eleven years old on February 8th and Devin turned fourteen on January 23rd.  (Same day as Lily.)    So today was the day.  We picked them up and took them for a small shopping trip and lunch.  Their Mother had said they needed shoes so shoes was the plan...We started out at the Shoe Carnival.    Devin insisted that he did not need shoes but Mama said different.  The first shoes Papa found, Devin selected.   I will admit that under some persuasion, he tried on a couple other pair of  shoes.  But returned to that first pair.  Good Choice!  Yet, can you imagine a grandson of the Papa does not like to shop for shoes, when the Papa would have spent half a day looking around.

 

On the contrary, Hailey is quiet the shopper.   She was very delighted to learn that she wears a size seven in ladies.  However the pair she choose were kid size  fives.    The rest of the time while her indecisive brother, Devin was 'not wanting to shop,'  Hailey was eagerly finding more shoes she would love to have in ladies seven.  Sadly however, we needed to limit the shopping trip to one pair today.  More will come with time.

 Shopping completed, it was time for lunch and the kids voted on Cheddars.   Cheddars is also one of Papa's favorite places.  He always gets the Chicken Salad with Honey Pecans and that wonderful honey Crousant.


I choose the same thing.

And then Hailey decided she wanted to eat healthy, so all three of us ordered the Chicken Salad. 

And Devin chose the Three Cheese Hickory Hamburger -- which he could not eat -- he took it home to Mama.

Carson turns SIX years old today!

Come To My House For Cookies

Posted this invite a week ago and it has been a week......so I ate all the cookies up.  Sorry, nobody wanted to come share my cookies.     Maybe for Easter I'll send out another invite and I'll try a new cookie?