~ Little Visitors ~

These little gals have a way of pulling at grannies heart.  The oldest, Aylin, called me a couple of weeks ago in tears, she misses her grandma and would like to come stay for awhile.   How could I tell her grandma really doesn't feel well and now is not a good time for a visit?  Well, I couldn't.  So a week later my daughter made the 3-4 hour drive up from southern Ky and dropped off not one but both grand daughters.  Scarlet, the youngest grand daughter has never spent the night with me without her mommy. Staying over a week might be asking a bit too much of the little gal.  Boy was I wrong.  I think it was about day 8 when she started to get a little home sick.  The trick to keeping those home sick blues away is keeping things interesting.  Thank goodness Mr. Podunk was here to help with the entertainment.  I couldn't have done it without him.  

What surprised me the most was the instant love they had for fishing. They went everyday but one due to rain. You should have seen the pouty faces when he told them they couldn't fish in the rain.

Grandpa Ross loved every minute of teaching these little gals everything they needed to know about fishing.

One our best ideas to keep the girls entertained was putting these swings right by the pond.  It's much cooler in the woods and grandpa can fish while the girls play.

When the fish stop biting grandpa decided to go for a stroll around the pond in the canoe.  Miss Scarlet had a near drowning experience earlier in the year that has left her with a fear of the water.  Hopefully she can get over it in time.  She did get in the canoe a few days later but as soon as they pulled away from the dock she became terrified.  It was a short ride but at least she tried.

That's okay, she and I took a walk around the pond to pick some wild blackberries.  Young children are so easy to entertain.  Everything is new and exciting.  Picking berries became a daily activity and each time they were just as excited about berries as the day before.

One of the most exciting activities for the girls was the turtle traps.  Ross baited the traps with the fish caught by the girls.

By the next morning we had not one but two turtles!  They had never seen a real turtle.  We released these back into the pond after Grandpa Ross taught them all they needed to know about mean ole snapping turtles.

So many children these days never learn how to play or use their imagination.  I'm so proud of my daughter for her minimalist life style and teaching the grandchildren to play.  Her home has no cable TV and no computer.  She does have a smart phone but the kids time on the phone games or videos is very limited.

The girls are pretending to climb a mountain.

About and hours worth of mountain climbing.

And then it was time to put little sister in jail!

Our biggest concern with the girls staying here was Khaleesi our German Shepherd.  As most of you know, she was abused and neglected before we took her into our home.  She can be aggressive towards men and she plays a little rough.  Our dog trainer said to keep her separated from the girls.  Khaleesi relentlessly whined when separated from the girls.  What we had forgotten is her previous home/family had a 5 year old little girl.  Cautiously we allowed her to mingle with the girls.   Khaleesi behaved very well.  There were only a couple of times during the week when she had to be removed due to jumping on the girls or just being a big ole overly excited puppy.  

 Our self proclaimed Princess Aylin learned to use a magnifying glass to burn things...living things...as any good princess would...LOL!  I had to let mommy know about this science experiment.  She wasn't as concerned as grandma.

Now to put the newly acquired noble knowledge to work.  She tried for about 30 minutes to start a fire for a wiener roast.

It's hot work building a fire.  So she recruited baby sister to fan her as she worked hard.  But she never could get more than a few puffs of smoke.

How many kids do you know that love to play with homemade toys?  Ross made about 20 of these glove buddies during the week.  The girls loved them for some reason.  By the end of the week we no longer had to draw on the faces, the girls decorated them.  This was another grandpa idea.  So creative is that man of mine!

Grandpa has all kinds of cool stuff to share.

He even likes to eat kiddy junk food....yukky hot dogs.  

Everyday was full of adventures right here in Podunk. We wanted to take the girls to a county fair.  But all of them were farther than we wanted to drive.  The closest one was a little over an hour away.  So we made our own fun and memories, that's the best kind anyway.

#familyfun #podunkpretties