Sometimes it's the simple things...

Almost every time the grandchildren come for a visit, we notice things about them that we didn't really pay attention to when we were raising our own children, their parents.

On our most recent grandchildren visit, Mike commented at how the older girls seemed to entertain themselves and have a good time.  He was amazed at how Lillie just intuitively notices things about animals.  It is almost like she is in-tune with them.  She quickly bonded with many of the calves at the barn and even those outside in the pasture behind the barn.  She knows to move slowly and carefully so as not to startle them.  She noticed that one of the calves had pooped in his trough and needed a clean-up job.  She noticed which calves were drinking water and which were just sucking and butting at the bucket.  She noticed the markings on them and which ones looked most like the older calves as a result.  She even recalled a calf we sold back in the early spring and pointed out that one of the bottle-babies looked a lot like him.  Sometimes animal people are just natural born, aren't they?

We also chuckled at how Lydia could take toy cookware and dishes and play for over an hour with the popcorn seeds I had decorating the table.  She scooped out a couple or three handfulls and stirred and poured and measured and served.  She was just as happy as a pig in mud the entire time.

One of the ways the older girls entertained themselves was by gathering acorns.  They filled their pockets and asked if they could take them home.  So, we put them on a foil-lined cookie sheet and baked them a few minutes to kill any worms that might have been living in them.  Each girl took home about a quart-zip-bag full of acorns.  I'm sure their mom was thrilled!

Looking for acorns.

They also gathered acorns for me.  I gave them a couple of little bowls and they brought in enough to cover a cookie sheet for me.

I quickly learned that each girl needed her own little container.  Lots of arguments can be avoided by a simple plastic container.  Again, we baked them and only one popped and exploded in the oven.

I emptied the popcorn out of one of the vases on my kitchen table and filled it with the acorns.  That added a whole new deminsion of color and another element of fall to my centerpiece.

At this point, my fall decorations include ceramic, glass and porcelain pumpkins.  I didn't even buy a real pumpkin this year.  I think that is a first for my entire adult life.  Sometimes it is just easier to go with what I already have, though.

The girls also spent a bit of time playing in the mud puddles left from the week's rainy days.  They both came in at one point with pants wet from the knee down.  One of them even had to change socks.  Their mother asked why I didn't insist that they wear their rubber boots.

They did!