In am spending my weekend "babysitting" my daughter's two children although the kids are not babies nor do they do much sitting. The fact of the matter is that Kaelin and Finn are "babysitting" grandma and I LOVE it.
The weekend started at 6AM on Friday when I got up to be at their house by 6:45 so I could get each of the kids to their bus stop for school. Finn leaves the house at 7:15, KK leaves at 8:15. Once they were on the bus I had the day to myself (all 6 hours) until I met Finn at the bus stop after school at 2:15 and then Kaelin at 4:15. From the bus stop we went directly to the community club house so KK could pick up her Second Place prize in the Bird House decorating contest. (The community buys bunches of small wooden bird houses for kids from the neighborhood to decorate. Prizes are awarded and Kaelin won second place for her age group. Once we had her prize, (a gift certificate for a free kid meal and soda at the Tiki Bar by the pool) we jumped into the car and took off for a dinner at Mac Donalds because we only had 30 minutes before we had to head off to Kaelin's school to see the Drama Club's production of "Elf 2". (Finn was bribed with the trip to Mac D's for dinner because he no more wanted to go to a play than I did.) The play commenced at 6 PM and we were back home in their house by 8:15. Right up stairs for showers, a story and bed which only took us till 9:30.
By now I am totally exhausted and we haven't even had a full day of fun yet !
Saturday started a little before 7:30 AM with a couple of kids jumping on Grand ma giggling like crazy. It's a shocking but wonderful way to wake up! Down stairs we started to make our signature chocolate chip pancake breakfast with sprinkles on top. I had thought ahead and brought my box of pancake mix but never gave a thought to the fact that my daughter would not have CHOCOLATE CHIPS ????!!!!
How do you live in a house with 2 kids and NOT have chocolate chips in the pantry ??????
Luckily we discovered a stash of Hershey's dark chocolate candy bars which, when smashed up with a wire whisk make an excellent substitute for chocolate chips. Luckily also was the fact that I had given my grand kids 3 large bags of sprinkles that I had rescued from my man's pantry up in MI. (My daughter also did not have sprinkles) Next we ran into a problem with the signature hot chocolate . . . there was none ! I have a box of 200 hot chocolate packets so that EVERY time I have grand kids over we are prepared. (Even when it is 92 degrees out side there MUST be hot chocolate.) Yesterday morning happened to be 59 degrees out side so it was vital we have our traditional hot drink with our pancakes. I forgot to bring some packets, NEVER thinking there could be a home with kids that does not have some form of hot chocolate somewhere in the house. NOT HERE ! So once again we got creative and found some coco powder for baking which when combined with sugar and heated up in milk makes for a good old fashioned drink like my mom used to make for me before the age of "Pre Packaged" foods. Breakfast was a huge success so with full tummies we could now get some homework done. Finn worked with me on his reading words and KK sat at the table by herself working on the computer finishing up her English and Science work. (Finn is in second grade, Kaelin is in sixth.)
Once that was done we were ready to venture out into the world for a stop at a local park, Chipotle for lunch and then to the movies by 1:45. Movie done by 4, stop at the grocery store to pick up some steaks for dinner and back to my house so the kids could work on their fairy garden. (We had bought a box full of new things for the garden and now was their opportunity to set it all up.) While they worked on that outside in the chilly chilly air I got dinner going. When they were done with the garden we sat down and had dinner, cleaned everything up and headed back to their house to get ready for bed because by then it was 8:00 PM. WHERE DID THE DAY GO ??????
I had everyone in bed by 8:3o, all of us totally exhausted. Finn was asleep before I shut his door and Kaelin and I read for about a half hour before we gave up for the night.
This morning I once again had the kamikaze attack launched at me at 7:30 and once again we headed down stairs for pancakes and hot chocolate, since we knew exactly what we were doing. It was another delicious, sticky, messy meal that everyone enjoyed. The difference with today is that it is Sunday and that means church day. Kaelin, Finn and their parents attend a different church from me so my daughter had made arrangements with a neighbor to pick up the kids so they could join their friends for church and then go back to their house to play for the afternoon. Off they went and off I went to my church. I am now back at my daughter's house where I spent the day cleaning up our messes, washing dishes and remaking beds but before all that got underway I thought I'd take a minute to have a little lunch for myself. And here's where it gets interesting . . .
This house is huge and lovely and in an amazing gated community where lots of "higher" income people live. (I could NOT afford to live here. I do not drive a Mercedes, a Tesla, a BMW or a Caddy so I wouldn't fit in.) It is a NICE community and an excellent place to raise kids. God Bless my son-in-law for doing so well with his business that he can afford to give his family such a lovely home. But the bottom line is that my son-in-law and my daughter did NOT grow up in this type of neighborhood so no matter how well they do in life they are still just "Normal" folks. With this being said I am in total amazement that there is not a single jar of jelly in this house !!! There are
seven . ..Yes I said SEVEN jars of organic peanut butter in the cabinet. (Even though grand daughter is highly allergic to peanuts.) I think this is pretty weird but I guess everyone else in the family has a love for the gooey stuff. My question now is ... What do they DO with all that peanut butter if there isn't any jelly anywhere in the entire house ??????
Maybe I really don't want to know.
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