Aunt KK and the Girls

I spent the weekend with my nieces, all three of them, and I’m still recovering. Friday afternoon, Grandma (my mother) and I picked up Hannah and Mackenzie at school and thus began our wild weekend. First, we went to Albertson’s to get food for dinner and snacks for the girls. Grandma normally doesn’t buy a lot of sugary stuff but somehow we left the store with two different kinds of boxed doughnuts and cereal. Chalk it up to grandmotherly indulgence I guess.

While exiting the store we saw a young man collecting donations for Teen Challenge. My mother gave him coin change from her pocket and told him how much she loved their program because of how much it helped her son. When we got to the car Hannah found a dollar in her backpack and wanted to give it as a donation so we drove over to where the man was standing and she handed it to him through the window. I’m so proud that she has such a generous heart.

We arrived home unloaded all the groceries and Grandma laid down for a nap. The girls and I watched cartoons on the Disney channel so they could have a rest on the couch. Later we had some snacks and Grandma started dinner. She made this rather strange concoction we call Uncle John’s corn pudding and the girls declared it was the best meal they ever had. (I should enter this in one of the recipe carnivals.)

After dinner Grandma took Hannah to Wal-Mart to buy some new jeans because the girl just keeps growing taller. Mackenzie and I stayed home and played paper dolls for a while and then a game of dominoes. Mackenzie is only five years old but she plays dominoes pretty well.
Grandma and Hannah returned home so we turned on our movie for the night which was Ociee Nash. It was cute and we all enjoyed it. This movie reminded me of Forest Gump only it was for children. By the time the movie was over we were already for bed.

Morning came early and even though it was Saturday we didn’t get to sleep in. My brother and his wife attended a worship seminar so Grandpa (my dad) picked up baby Zoe and brought her back to the house. We weren’t really sure how she would handle the situation because she is only 10 months old and is very attached to her mother. Thankfully she handled the whole thing rather well. Grandpa had to go visit Granny (my grandmother) who was in the hospital for a couple days but she’s doing OK now.

Breakfast consisted of doughnuts and cereal. Hannah and Mackenzie entertained themselves with paper dolls for several hours. Baby Zoe was content to play on the floor with her toys and my foot rests. She had some sort of push toy that she likes to wheel around the house. She almost walks by herself and is very fast crawling around the floor.

Late in the morning I decided we needed to go outside and play for a while so I invented a game for us to play. I called it alphabet treasure hunt. Basically I made a list from A to Z and our goal was to find something on our walk through the neighborhood that begins with each letter of the alphabet. Hannah is eight years old and has just started third grade so she was our official list keeper. We found everything except something starting with the letter X. The girls thoroughly enjoyed it.

By the time we returned home baby Zoe had almost fallen asleep so Hannah rocked her while Grandma made lunch. Zoe slept on the couch while the rest of us munched out on turkey sandwiches with barbecue potato chips. Yummy! Unfortunately, Zoe slept only 20 minutes. Her lunch consisted of mashed bananas, Vienna sausages, goldfish crackers and raisins. She absolutely devoured those Vienna sausages — it was adorable.

The girls continued their self entertainment with paper dolls. They have such a vivid imagination and it was fun to watch them play and listen to some of their storylines. At one point I decided to participate so my doll was the Mommy. After awhile I got engrossed in a conversation with Grandma and forgot that I was playing their game. I kept hearing Mackenzie say Mommy, Mommy, and I couldn’t figure out why. Then it dawned on me that I was the Mommy. Okay, Aunt KK needs to pay better attention. Zoe crawled around the floor and played with my wheelchair and other toys. It turned out her favorite toy was a small empty cardboard box. I don’t know why her parents bother to buy plastic toys.

Much to the joy of Hannah and Mackenzie Grandpa returned home around three o’clock. He and I took them to the community pool and the three of them went swimming. Grandma stayed home with Zoe who still wouldn’t take a nap. The girls played in the pool for an hour and I got a little sun. The next thing we know it was time for Jack and Ashley to return and take the girls home. Baby Zoe didn’t cry until she saw her mother! All in all it was a great day.