Grandkid sleepover madness!

Important note about the NCAA Tournament: I don't care any more.

The grandkids actually got to have a sleepover somewhere other than at a hospital - they spent Sunday night at our place! It was mostly fun, although I tend to forget how inexhaustible their demands for pretending can be. Things like tea parties involving whole fruit in the cup, being a pirate who locked the princess in a tower (three times, each with slight revisions involving a super dog and the pirate being a bit daft), and endless hours of making a variety of stuffed animals talk in comical voices.

In any case, here are some pictures.


Mrs Notthat found a small bicycle somewhere that the grandkids have been dying to use. It's had two flat tires so it's been just laying around. On Sunday, The Boy and I managed to get air to stay in the tires long enough for Riley to sit on it and immediately fall over. Riding on two wheels is a bit more tricky than the average three-wheeled vehicle. The bike has laid on its side since. (But once the weather actually gets nice I will suit them up in body armour and teach them how to fall without getting scraped. Well, at least bad enough to require a trip to the hospital.)


We set up the teepee as a kind of windbreak, and it was good fun for a bit, but the wind and less than graceful grandkids kept us busy repairing it.


Riley wanted to help water various plants and fence rails. Amazingly, he managed to not water himself.


Darci then had her turn (and a LOT more water ended up on the plants).


The sleeping arrangements involved the kids and Mrs Notthat all in the same room. Mrs wanted to be there in case Riley was to wake up with breathing issues. Riley woke up with "where the heck am I?" issues instead. The kids were excited about all these beds. For a bit.


Darci ended up having a meltdown for the ages during the official toothbrushing period. It was loud. And sustained. And extremely frustrating since nothing could be done to calm her down except waiting for her to wear out, which she finally did. Riley, in the meantime, fell asleep on the couch.


The next morning, Darci woke up perky and composed after a good night's sleep. Everyone else was dragging. Here she stirs the strawberry pancakes.


Darci wanted hot chocolate, so I had her spell out "chocolate" using the magnetic letters. She was creative at coming up with substitutes for missing letters.


Meanwhile, Riley played with his Hot Wheels sets. He refused to explain the purpose of the purple bungee cord, but insisted it was required.

And that's about it. Both kids are on a variety of medications, some requiring a loud mini-air compressor, and seem to be getting better.

We hope the improvements continue.

That's it - move along...

PS: The big news around here was a small earthquake this morning. It was big enough that you were sure what it was, but small enough to not do any damage at all. Of course, it will be the lead story on the news for at least a week.