Eva's first visit to Panny and Poppy's house alone, April 24 to 26, 2010

Our granddaughter Eva came and spent three days and two nights with us last weekend, and it was such a wonderful time, especially considering that it was her first time ever to stay away from home without her parents! You're a brave little girl, Miss Eva!  And she'd just had her half birthday on April 22, turning five and a half!

Eva brought her doll Elizabeth with her, and everything that Eva did, Elizabeth did, too. It's my theory, as her observant Panny, that Eva did so well staying alone with us, because she wasn't really "alone" with us: She had her little friend Elizabeth the whole time.

Later Gretchen told me that Eva had never paid much attention to Elizabeth since getting her a year and a half earlier, for her fourth birthday. But since going back home, Elizabeth is still enjoying being Eva's best friend! So you just never know!

After Eva's ballet class at the Beck Center in Lakewood (their hometown), Gretchen and Mike brought Eva down to our place in Wooster, and we all had a nice lunch, before her Mommy and Daddy went home.

Being a little Fruit Bat, Eva was preoccupied with the thought of enjoying eating an apple, and didn't get upset when her folks left. Whew!

Before we took a nap, I got Eva to take a walk with me, so she'd be good and tired.  (It worked!  We got a good nap afterwards. Yea!)

I showed Eva my wonderful crop of catnip growing by the door, and she picked some for Otis and Ome to eat.

Time to give the kitties their catnip treats!

Otis is always hopeful that he'll get some catnip, when I come back from a walk, and Eva didn't let him down!

You have to go find Ome usually, since she's not as gung-ho as Otis is, about gobbling up catnip. But she likes it enough, and was happy that Eva brought her some.

This is a big deal. It's the first time that we've used the car seat in OUR car, when Eva's here. For all this time, we used GEM's car, whenever all of us would go somewhere, when they were at our house.  But noe we own our own seat, and lookie how well Eva fits into it! Our maiden voyage was to eat at the Green Leaf Restaurant, the place my parents loved so very much, and we love it, too!

We're at the Green Leaf now, and Eva's clearly having a good time!

We've got burgers and fries, and Eva's got Jell-O, enough to share with her doll Elizabeth, too!

Time to run around to the other side of the table and pose with Poppy!

After that, it was time to get ready to go home. We had work to do!

This was Eva's highly successful first time ever to break an egg, and for a very good purpose:

It was Panny and Eva's big Bake Chocolate Chip Cookies Time!

Mashing softened butter into beaten egg, for the first time. Eeeewwwww!

Ya have to get the cookies just the right size and pack the dough down just right!

then ya have to wash up the mess, while the cookies are baking!

Seeeeeeee?

OK, this is the good part!

And if that weren't enough, these crazy grandparents let a kid have a fudgecicle treat, AFTER COOKIES!  Cheers, Poppy!

That fudgecicle treat got Otis all fired up, and he enjoyed a good game of catch the sparkly, rattly thing on a stick! The big event for the night was yet to come, as we all watched the first half of the movie "The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants." It was a late night, and Eva slept well!

The next morning was Sunday, and it was cold out again, so Eva and Elizabeth got all bundled up for an early morning walk. Here's Eva with the painted version of herself on our garage mural.

No, I didn't put Elizabeth into the mural.  Next mural ... maybe!

Eva started a drawing about our trip to the Green Leaf restaurant.

Pretty soon it was time to help Poppy make pancakes.  These two have had practice on their routine for this project, and they slid into their chore with glee!

Elizabeth was new to the Great Pancake Fry, but Eva knew her stuff!

Jimmy and Eva carefully count 30 seconds before each flip.

Before you know it, it's time to eat!

And then it was time to take a drawing that Eva had made at home, over to give to her friend Haley, who lives over by the school. We had walked to her house twice before on this weekend, but this time, we'd called and had a plan with Haley's mom, so it worked out!

Haley liked Eva's drawing and invited her to come play in her room. When I went to get Eva, to go home to our place, they were happily playing dolls. Eva and Haley are the same age, and both will go to kindergarten this Fall.

Coming back to our house from Haley's, Eva and I enjoyed seeing all the crabapple petals falling on the Moon Garden, turning the stones pink!

Then I had to go to a Co-op Council meeting, and it was Poppy's job to make sure that Eva took her nap. He promised to read her books and talk quietly, to not do anything to fire her up! And when I came home and tiptoed into Eva's room, I found them sound asleep, side by side.

But they were playing possum!  Poppy was so surprised that it can be impossible to get Eva to fall asleep!  Plus the pre-nap Chair Races could have possible gotten her fired up, you know!

Later they showed me what Chair Races are like.

Supper on Sunday night was hot dogs grilled by Poppy on his little camping grill. Yum! Of course they were accompanied by lots of fruit!  Later on Sunday night we polished off the movie Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants, which we really enjoyed, and we all went to bed early. Eva and I were discussing that movie the next day, trying to figure  everything out. She's really a good person to watch movies with, as she really pays attention all the way through!

Here's Eva's drawing of our Saturday night meal at the Green Leaf. From left: Poppy, Panny, Elizabeth, and Eva.

And this is Eva's drawing of "Eva's Ice Cream Shop."  She's saying, "Step right up!" and she's just handed me a tasty mint ice cream cone!

I was trying to get her to collaborate with me on another book, like the one we made together at her house on Easter. But Eva musta been a little burnt out on that kind of thing.  So I made a bunch of my own drawings with a black marker, hoping to lure her in, but it didn't work. Neither of us got our stuff colored in, and my drawings are still in a pile.  Maybe I'll make a coloring book with them eventually. But I know I prefer our joint efforts, where both of our drawing styles interact, because we've both been trying to work on the same page at once!  Maybe next time!

Monday morning went by like a whirlwind, We went downtown and walked around to see friends we knew in our favorite stores, like the Co-op and Early's Uptown Downtown, but soon it was time to take Eva home! We were all sad.

Eva collected more catnip for Otis and Ome, who have gotten pretty used to her flopping all over them by now.  Too bad she can't bring their sister Cricket along from her house in Lakewood, but we know the three kittens wouldn't remember each other, after three and a half years of being apart! So Cricket remains Otis and Ome's long lost sister, who only joins them in our drawings!

Off we went to Lakewood, to Eva's happy parents, who had missed her very much. She had missed them, too, but while she was at our house, she never cried, the whole time.

We didn't have time to do so many of the activities on our list, including sewing on our Hello Kitty sewing machine and Eva helping Poppy with his leather work.  Next time!!!

Eva is a very good traveler and house guest! Come back any time, sweet little Possum!

Now it's May 3rd, and I just found these two little drawings in my purse - Eva made them while we were waiting for our food at The Parlor on April 26, Monday. The one above is of Jimmy fishing, along with a happy little ground hog, which is an animal that Jimmy and Eva like to bring into their stories. I LOVE the expressions Eva puts on the faces she draws. What an amazing time of a person's life, when you see the world with such joy and curiosity!

On the other side of the little piece of paper is this drawing of Jimmy, me, and Eva. These drawings are on junkmail paper that I keep in my bag, only 4.25"h x 5.5"w, made with a nice little blue Bic pen. They are my most current treasures.

Tomorrow is the 40th anniversary of the killings at Kent State, and I care about it for many reasons, one of which is that children like Eva need to grow up in a safe world, where they can always speak their mind without being in danger.  They need to grow up in Peace and Love.