Our daughter Diane drove here from Maine on Saturday, February 14. Her goal was to give their daughter Abby a few breaks during her birthday week. Consequently, our house was filled with laughter and the sound of young voices.

Diane wanted to have one-on-one time with each of her five Pennsylvania grandchildren. This was Jazzy’s time.

The first thing Anthony did was remove snow from our patio.

Natalie wanted to watch Paw Patrol rather than my camera. 🙂

Grammy and Renee worked on a sticker book.

Grammy and Garth played with a forklift.

Jazzy was the first one to be here and helped make supper. Hot ham and cheese sliders.

Our dessert was chocolate covered strawberries which were a gift from our daughter Deb.

Then they took time to watch a kid’s movie.

After being here overnight Jazzy became interested in birdwatching.

Sometime later, when I walked into the kitchen, I laughed out loud because of the bird book and lots of drawings and stick-it notes on the table and windowsill.

I laughed because I found a mini me. That is exactly what I would have done as a young girl. I took notes about everything and recorded things like this.

Later I discovered her drawing a bird in her new sketchbook.

Natalie also likes sketching and drawing. She was doing this with a piece of paper and a clipboard I gave her.

Diane and Renee laying out a quilt in the back room of our garage.

One morning when all the girls were here, they decided to use the paste-on nails they bought somewhere.

Natalie choosing hers

Renee with her fancy nails.

Anthony and Grammy playing a game.

One afternoon when they were all here I tried taking a picture of them with Grammy. Not everyone was smiling, so I tried again, saying, “Not everyone was smiling.”

Well that wasn’t much better. Notice Natalie’s eyes. 🙂

That’s better. It looks like Garth didn’t get the smile message.

We scheduled a Wednesday evening supper at C.R. Lapps, Quarryville, so Diane could see Roy and Deb (her sister), her daughter Lydia, and our mutual friend Chris (left).

From the other end of the table. Abby, the birthday girl, on the left. Nate and Anthony had originally planned to go skiing, but it was a warm rainy day – not good for skiing – so they joined us as well.

Another restaurant patron noticed that I wasn’t in a picture, so offered to take one that included me. That was nice.

photo by Deb

Chris and Diane.

Lydia and Chris were our original contact, because Lydia cared for Chris’ husband at the retirement community where they lived. Since that time he passed on to glory and Lydia is working at another location. Because of that contact Diane and I became fast friends with Chris. It has been a year or more since we saw her.

Natalie. This was a child’s hamburger – with all the fixings.

There have been things lying around our place this week that are not usual for our house. 🙂

Today we had lunch with Lydia who works for a group of doctors at Lancaster General Health Suburban Pavilion. It was fun to spend a bit of time in her world.

This evening the house is quiet, and Diane is working on her quilt.