New Zealand Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries.

What does this have to do with grandies? Funny story. Last Spring in the US, I found little gardening tools and gumboots and butterfly nets and bugs at Target. Irresistible for young gardeners who love to help their dad. I bought a packet of the bright plastic bugs/beetles and packaged them up two at a time. They sat on my table stamped and ready to go and every week I put them in the post with the idea that Lucas would be excited enough to anticipate which bugs were coming the next week.

They didnt arrive and didnt arrive, but I still kept sending them. They eventually arrived in mass .....having gone through the scanner in NZ and been sent to the MAF (see title) to open and inspect. Yes I guess they may have looked like dead bugs...!!

Gramz

what is important

The most important thing we can do for our grandchildren is pray for them...

20 questions....

Today we are doing our favorite things: Pop playing golf and Grammy sewing.

I am finishing piecing a 4th of July quilt. Am I early or late? I'll go with early. I have a bunch of fabric scraps which I will throw into an envelope along with some questions for Lucas. eg. How many stars can you count, can you find the word 'liberty', what color are the stripes, which is your favorite fabric, can you find the blue dots on the red crosses....etc

This is 'educational' today. I could wait until July 4thish and send the fabric for the appropriate holiday, but I might forget and he will miss out on this wonderful opportunity to learn about stars and stripes, so I'll do it today.

Another option: find a picture in a magazine that would hold their interest. Send it with a few questions eg: how many animals, balls etc, what are they eating, which one has a funniest hat. If the children are older tap into their imagination.... what do you think is behind the tree, why do you think the boys are running from.

May 2009 be filled with building relationships...especially with grandies. You are such an important person in their lives.

Gramz

Postcards

Today Pop and I are Scottsdale Arizona for a few days 'off'' He is enjoying golf and I have bought a pile of things I need to read and also my sewing machine.!! Doing the same things but in a different location with no distractions.

Of course the grandies are never far from my mind, so a quick stop at the hotel gift shop to buy bandaids for Pop, also gave the opportunity to buy 3 postcards. One with a rattlesnake for 3yr old Lucas (his mum will love the Rattlesnake recipe I am sure..!!) and 2 with a variety of animals on for our 18mth old boys Zach and Elliott.

The words on the back are written in very large print with just a "Hi from Grammy and Pop...I wonder if we will see these animals when we go for a drive today" or "what sort of noise does this animal make?" or "can you find on the map where we are today."

Gramz

note to self: make up a bunch of address labels for the grands to carry with us, plus stamps.