Colvin's over night with Nana and Papa

All 3 of the Grands came over to swim with us Thursday morning and then their Mama took Landon and Leighton back home after lunch.  Colvin and I took our neighborhood walk collecting "specimens" for Papa to identify.  We watched party of the movie "How to Tame Your Dragon" before dinner and part after.

Here is Colvin in the fedora I bought for each of the boys.

 He brought over the black lamb he requested we bring him from New Zealand and asked for a tail...never noticed it didn't have one so out came my embroidery thread.

We had a lovely day today with a trip to the farmer's market in Dunedin where Papa taught Colvin the finer points of picking out fresh veggies.  Colvin picked out some to take home to his Mama ( 3 Ruskin beefsteak tomatoes, 5 ears of sweet corn and 3 plums).

Papa left in the car and, having just missed the Jolly Trolley back north, we waited on a bench in the shade til it came along.  Colvin seemed to enjoy riding the Trolley so we'll have to do this again.

I can not tell you how much E and I have been enjoying getting to spend time with each of our grand sons on a one by one basis.  We see a lot of all 3 together as they come to swim at least once a week during the summer and we are at their house 3 x a week to take Leighton to school during the school year.  We have developed different traditions with each of the boys as we will when we cycle Leighton into the rotation when she turns 31/2.

When is Landon's next turn?  Well, not til we get back from the beach.  We leave the 12th. of July.  Tom, our beloved house/cat sitter will be in residence with our dear Susie as his back up.  The first week we go solo, catching up with our friends from when we lived in Ft. Myers and our family who still live there.  The second week is our St. Louis friends' reunion week and our Grands will be down that week too and our 3rd. we spend with our dear friends, Bill and Jo.  So looking forward to our beach vacation.

Meanwhile, E has recovered well from his stint with pneumonia but he had to return to the dermatologist for more surgery on his back to remove more of the melanoma.  He goes next week for a procedure on his nose.  I keep telling him that if these drs keep whittling away on him, he'll be a shadow of himself. 

Catch Up Sat.

We've been so busy lately, I have not had time to post.  Between a day watching all 3 Grands (beach day) week before last, walking a 5k with our friend, Jerry, last Sat. to having the kids again 3 days last week with the boys' b'day party thrown in for good measure, along with a bit of dehydration thrown in for good measure, we've both been too busy to spit (as the saying goes).

I finally found the Banner paper with Landon's picture in it along with one of my daughter, grandsons, granddaughter and myself all seen from the back (not very flattering of me but oh well).

I found a few more beach pics from our time at the beach with the Grands.

 Watermelon time

The boys celebrated their birthday a bit early on June 7th at Future Flipz gymnastics in Clearwater where the kids have all taken classes.  The company did a great job and the kids all loved it.

While our limo service days for Leighton are over for this school year, we'll still be seeing the Grands often for swim time here and outings.  I am hosting a crop here next Sat. for the Women Who Do Lunch bunch and we're having a garage sale with Kristen the following Sat.  Before we know it, we'll be heading south for our three weeks at the beach.  Our ever faithful house sitter, Tom, has once agreed to stay here with our cats.  E has been assembling his recipes and even has his swim trunks packed already.  Meanwhile, stop by the blog from time to time.  Your visits are appreciated.

Nana, Papa and the Grands at Sunset Beach

We have two beaches in our town.  The larger is reached by a causeway and has tons of soft sand with waves for splashing and playing.  The smaller of the two is Sunset Beach, a "pocket" beach that has less soft sand, few waves but shallow clear water reaching way out into the Gulf.  It is less busy and less frequented and this is the one we prefer for the Grands. 

The Grands' mom and dad take them to Clearwater Beach where there is tons of sand and big waves but also tons of people.  We prefer the quiet of our little beach.  I think the Grands have fun anyway.

We built sand castles, made roads and a rock dock.  We saw jumping fish, a dolphin and tiny tiny fish that swam over our feet.  The crab in his shell was the high light of the day as we could follow him quite a ways. 

We shared watermelon chunks and then headed home to Nana/Papa's house where the Grands played in the sprinkler til we got most of the sand off.  The movie of the day was Peter Pan half of which we watched before naps and half after.  Pirates are a big favorite with all 3 with a pixie thrown in now and then.  When asked who they wanted to be in the movie, Colvin told us he wanted to be the croc...lol.

We've got these 3 little gifts for two days next week.  We'll spend one day here at our house and the other day at theirs to break it up a bit.  The boys' birthday party is this Sat. with their actual 4th. b'day on the 10th.  It is so hard to believe it has been that long since their birth...seems like just yesterday.  They have changed so very much over the past four years and I want to say to them, "Knock it off! Stay little" but we all know that won't happen! lol