Again with the pretend grandchildren

Thursday we drove up to Davis again.  Friday was Grandparent's and Special Friends' Day at Hall's school.  No real grandparents were able to come out, so Marty and I had the privilege of attending. We took Hall to school and then signed in for the morning's events.  There would be a Mass, a reception, time in the classroom, and an assembly.

Now the Mass is always a problem.  We are not Catholic. We don't know when to stand or when to sit down.  And we don't know 90% of the responses.  Also Catholic services last longer than our protestant service.  Marty and I tend to tune out after 45 minutes.  We did OK, and didn't embarrass Hall.

This is Hall reading part of the prayers.  He was very composed.  Several hundred people were in the church.  My knees would have been knocking.  Amazing, he is only 8 years old.

              This is Marty and Hall in the classroom.  They are playing a math game.

Look at that evil grin on Hall's face.  He thinks he has beat Marty at the math game.  Guess who won.  That would be Aunt Janet.

This is the next project we did with Hall, a word search.  This thing was really tough.  It took all three of us to find the words.  They were up, down, frontwards, backwards, and oh hell on a slant.

 

Word search is finished.  Now he gets to color the picture.  We wore a picture of Hall as our visitor's badge.

I have three wonderful videos of the assembly.  For some reason none will load.  I have tried emailing them to family, that hasn't worked either.  I will have to call 1-800 Erik.  He posts videos on his blog, so surely he will be able to help me.  It may cost me cooking dinner for my son, but he will help Mom.  If we figure it out, I will post them later. 

After all the events, school was out around noon.  We had told Hall he could pick where we would have lunch.  He picked Subway.  He was so funny when we went in.  It was very clear he had been there often.  He went to the soft drink cooler, grabbed his drink.  Then he grabbed chips and got in line to order his sandwich. He knew the people standing behind him would pay. Everyone was ordering by name, the spicy Italian, turkey club.  Not Hall, he ordered the type bread untoasted, cheese, the two meats he wanted,tomatoes, onions, then the condiments he wanted.  He was precise.  The sandwich guy commented on how Hall knew what he wanted.  The sandwich he ordered sounded so good that I ordered it.

Thank you, Hall, for letting us be your grandparents for a day.  We love you very much. 

GRANDPARENTS' DAY

Marty and I have no grandchildren.  But we have several pretend grandchildren.  And that is pretty wonderful.  You have children who love you and you love them back.  You get hugs and kisses, and sometimes temper tantrums.  You get to go to school on Grandparents' Day and share that special day with them.

Yesterday we drove up to Davis so we could go to school today with Hall, our nephew.  Hall is a first grader and asked us to come since his real grandparents all live in Ky.  We were honored to be asked.  Below are lots of pictures of our time with Hall, and his sisters Annabella and Ava.  I took nearly 40 pictures.  Don't worry, I can self edit and you will only have 10 to look at.

 Marty and 2 month old Ava.  She loves to be held.  We are all thrilled to hold her.

 As soon as we arrived, Bella was waiting for us to come play with her.  She was so excited we were having a sleep over together.  She is waiting here for me to read to her.

 Colonel Daddy.  I didn't get any pictures of Tres the last time we visited.  This time Mom was left out.  I guess we will have to keep going up until I get pictures of everyone.

 The program at school began with a Mass.  Yes a Catholic School.  Marty and I are protestant.  We sat in the back row so we could fake our way through the service.  Man, Catholics get up and down a lot.  And their service is really really long.  We go to an early service that is 45 minutes or less.  Not used to that much ceremony.  It was a nice service.  The children were very involved in the service.

                      This is Hall in his classroom.  The children are singing a song with hand motions.

                                    Hall and Uncle Marty working on an art project together.

   Hall and Aunt Janet with the art project.  Notice my ID badge, Hall's picture.

 Here Hall is writing a note to Marty and me that will go into the decorated bag. 

                                               
                                                      This is a life size self portrait of Hall.

During the concert which closed the day's activities, Bella was bored.  She had had all the fun a three year could stand.  So Bella took pictures of me taking pictures of her.  She was so careful with the camera.  She wrapped the strap around her arm so if the camera dropped, it wouldn't hit the floor.

We had a great time Thursday night and Friday morning. The adults talked and drank wine.  The children played and made us feel happy. It was so very special for Hall to ask us to go to school with him.  He hugged us and even kissed us in front of his friends.  A lot of little boys won't do that.  He almost made me cry.  We have already been asked to go next year, if they are still at Travis.  I hope they are here.  This was fun.