Play and Work at Grandma and Grandpa Sellner's

I have so much to write and don't know where to start, so rather than putting it off for another two months, I'm just going to start writing. It's not going to make any sense. It's not going to be well-planned or nicely formatted or even complete. It's going to be a series of fragmented brain dumps and photos. Here goes...

I've written here before about the wonderland that is my parents' yard.  It's one of my favorite places in the whole world. Recently, I've been taking my kids over to my parents' house about once a week for a visit. My Dad's health has been compromised and he isn't quite as mobile right now as we're used to. So as his body heals and his strength comes back, we're going to them instead of them coming to us. This just means my kids get more opportunities to experience their Grandpa and Grandma's house and beautiful yard aside from the hubbub of all of the big family gatherings. They're getting to snuggle with Grandpa in his big comfy chair, they're getting to go for strolls through the yard with Grandma. Gavin is spotting spring peepers and trying to sneak up on them... he is SWIMMING in the front pond like I did when I was a kid, catching water bugs in a cup (and in his shorts, I am sure!). He is raking leaves, or better yet jumping in them! He is getting tractor rides and playing in their sandbox and collecting eggs from the chickens.

Less than two weeks ago, we went over there for just a few hours on a Friday afternoon. My Dad (Grandpa) sat out on the sidewalk for a while in the hot sunshine. The temp was nearly 80 degrees and I was roasting in the sun! We're not used to that kind of heat yet! (Four days later we got 10" of snow!)

 

Addison and My Mom (Grandma) sat down by the pond and listened to the songs of the frogs in the pond. Gavin started out in his tennis shoes and jeans at the pond, but had quickly changed into water shoes (which I had in the car, but had planned on him using up at the lake house in the summer). It wasn't long before he wanted different pants on so that his jeans didn't get wet. Grandma found a pair of camouflage pajama pants for him so he put those on with his spiderman shirt (and Grandma's blue sun hat). The pants were too big and had to be pulled up to his chest to stay on. They didn't last too long and soon he was in some blue pajama shorts that Grandma had in a dresser drawer in one of the bedrooms. (major fashion statement!)   

(Yep, that's my weird kid again... making weird faces! I just LOVE that kid and all his weirdness!)



On Mothers' Day this past weekend we found ourselves over there again, this time there was a big crew of us there doing yard clean up and projects. We cut down some trees and cut them cut up and stacked for firewood, hauled branches and leaves to the compost center, fixed lawn mowers and garden tillers, cleaned out flower beds, moved plants, filled planters, and put up the electric fencing around the vegetable garden for the season. Lots of work was done and everyone worked together. It was wonderful. My nieces and nephews worked on cleaning up leaves and branches and driving the tractor and trailer around the yard picking everything up. It was such a great sight to see and reminded us "older" generation of ourselves when we were kids.

No day at Grandpa and Grandma's though is complete without some time spent in the pond. When I was a kid, this pond was deep and full and lush! When the housing development across the road went in and they built ponds all over it, our pond dried up. After years of a dry pond-bed, my sisters tackled turning it into a rock and flower garden with a dry creek bed so that the little bit of spring rain had a place to go until it too dried up. The year after they "finished" the rock garden, it FILLED with water and was full most of the summer, killing everything they planted. It's always got water now in the spring, but we'll see how long the water lasts! For now, it's perfect for the kids to play in! Here is Gavin with two of his cousins, Nathan and Luke, catching bugs so they can go put them in the bird baths in Grandma's flower beds!  

Wish I could have captured the view later in the evening, when the boys were playing way down in the back yard, by the edge of the woods, with the warm evening sun streaming through the trees and casting long, dramatic shadows across the ground. It was the most beautiful sight!