Yes, Gramma Camp 2.0!

Monday, Aug. 27

Grampa went shopping. He was exhausted. He put out garbage Monday morning, then went for his hour walk.

They've been all around the world, but they came back to visit. We're going to have a lovely few days before school.

Day 1 – Monday

Caitlin drove them here. We had a great visit, with lots of tales about their trips. It was so good to hug them all! Poor Papa had to go to work, though. Momma works 4 days a week.
We hugged Momma, who went home for dinner.

Afterwards, we watched tennis with Grampa. Raonic won! Happy dance. Isabelle and Grampa went into town, and rented a video. It was her turn to choose. That was for later. The kids were fading some. They are pretty jet lagged.
Then we watched Sesame Street and it was all about dancing! Latin, Bollywood, freestyle.
Next, Super Why!
Grampa offered to take them to the library, but Josee said they were OK with the books in the basement!
A bit of excitement at the feeders.
Black squirrel from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.

Then there is red squirrel...
Red squirrel from Jennifer Jilks on Vimeo.


We were feeling lazy and watched Kid's TV:

• Wild Kratts, raw green beans, and water, for a snack.
• Odd Squad, and raw veggies.

Dinner was hot dogs and corn. Jos shucked for me. She didn't eat too much. We did have non-dairy mango ice cream for dessert.


 Izzy was alone in the basement watching Monster Trucks! The rest of us were watching tennis, upstairs after dinner.

6:20 Josie fell asleep on the couch. I pulled her down to lay her flat, and Grampa slid a pillow under her head. I kept checking on Isabelle and at she must have fallen asleep by 6:30 or 7:00. I tucked her in, turned off the TV. Grampa and I went to bed around 9 p.m., I figured we might have an early morning!

Day 2 – Tuesday

I woke after a nightmare at 4:30 a.m. Went to the loo. Daisy cat wanted in, she roared down the hall after Hooper. Snarling and hissing. Daisy went back out. Two cats thought they should have breakfast.


There was an apparition in the living room. Isabelle had used the nightlight/flashlight to come upstairs. Clever girl. Both girls were wide awake. We nestled in downstairs by 5:00 a.m. to rewatch the movie. It was kinda cute... Water and fruit for pre-breakfast.

Our Movie: Monster Trucks. Funnily enough, the movie was filmed in Kamloops, Surrey, and Chilliwack, B.C. My son's in-laws live near Surrey!

We moved upstairs by dawn. Grampa brought me my coffee. The girls had toast. We watched Odd Squad #2, taped from the previous night. By this point, Grampa had showered after his hour walk, then went out to dispatch Meals on Wheels.

Activities

Next we were looking at trip photos. By photo #150/417, Izzy got bored. Jos kept going.

Izzy and I played school in the basement: music, playtime (Lego), and finally, Math. (She loves math.)  We reviewed Roman Numerals:  V and X, I had to yell upstairs to ask Jos what '50' was (L) and we did VIII (Is' age), IV (half of that), then VC (my client's age), and my client's older sister's age (IIC). Then, because Iz loves math, we did some multiplication (22 x 3), adding ("I can do regrouping, I'm good at math.") (24 + 16). We had a disagreement for this on: (-4 + -5) , but I don't want to do the right fight with an 8-year-old!! These were for me: (106 - 107). At first I didn't notice the - sign, then I thought it was 206 - 107. Sigh. I used to teach this stuff! It's like reading music and forgetting to notice the key signature.

The cats love the princess castle.

Josee took these photos.


Next up: we made individual cakes in a mug. I forget where I spotted this, but it works well. Little clean up. If you use a mason jar/mug, you just put the lid on to shake it and mix it!

While the cakes cooked, they played with the letters on the fridge. 

Crafts: Josee made a foosball game. Daisy helped. Isabelle created a house out of her sticks.

Isabelle went into town with grampa to pick the day's movie: Ready Player One. Josee didn't feel up to it. Josee had seen it on the plane during one of their flights. We watched it in the afternoon. It wasn't bad!

We did Facetime with Momma as she walked home from work. 

Meatloaf for dinner. 

Bedtime

I took Izzy downstairs to get her ready for bed. It was 7:30 and she was fading. I pretended to pick her up. We giggled. We walked to the top of the stairs to go down to where they sleep in the basement TV room. I said, "I guess I can't carry you anymore."

     "Nope. Neither of us are young anymore, or small!" 

What a kid! I love them!

Carleton Place, Almonte, Clayton

We had missions: library, CP for supplements for JB, lunch in Almonte!


It seems an odd place to stop, unless they had an incident, but there didn't seem to be damage!


We made it to Almonte.


They are still working on the Enerdu hydro project. Hooray for reusable energy. I've been photographing it over the years.


There must have been a day camp or something, lots of kids lined up for ice cream!


They are working on the bridge, the taller building (back left) are condos. A fountain has been added.


We went to the Barley Mow for lunch. After the dogs last week, I was glad to see this sign! It's a lovely old building, with thick stone walls.


For the first time ever, we sat on the upper deck.


This is the pub from the bridge, on another day. We were right on the end watching the water.

Off, on a whim, where to?


Hay!


This driveway is amazing. The huge hanging baskets of petunias must take a lot of water.

Clayton!

We popped in to see what was happening in Clayton. They have a lovely general store!

I really like this old house. There is a nice view of the river, as well as an astounding patio built of stone.

Bugs, blooms, smoke and fires

Soon we'll say goodbye to the bugs, some of our critters, and blooms. Hopefully, that means we'll get some rain.

We had a burning bush!


There was an emergency in the area. I still haven't found out what it was. Sun. Aug, 19, 5:47 p.m. There were 4 cars at once, and another a bit later.

 

Our Local Food Bank

We donate monthly to our food bank, as well as some other groups (our Women's Shelter, The Stephen Lewis Foundation, Aspen Valley Wildlife Sanctuary!).

I was interested in what the food bank is doing for local citizens: "The Table Community Food Centre now offering peer advocacy programming in Perth".
This is what will help people in our community.

Around the World 

They are home and safe. JL and Isabelle were in business class, Caitlin and Josephine were in the back and took longer to disembark having come from LAX => YVR => YOW!
Isn't this a joyful photo?!



Also, it's Gramma Camp this week! Stay tuned for more tales!

The kids took some photos of the smoke from the California fires as they flew back. It is shocking. The fire in Central Ontario ("Parry Sound 33") is FINALLY under control. It started July 21st. There are fires all up and down the continent.


There is a Montana wildfire threatening a Canadian park.

You can visit NOAA and see the smoke from the fires.