Gramma comes to visit...

Yesterday was an AWESOME day with my mom (Gramma).  We all love when she comes to visit and I enjoy having someone to talk to that doesn't say, "mom, momma, mom, momma, mom, mom, mom...before every single sentence".  Gramma was here at 8 a.m. with flowers, doughnuts and gummi butterflies and we kept her busy from that moment on!
FYI,  it's always nice to show up on someone's doorstep with flowers and doughnuts in hand...especially if it's my house...
First we went to Zach's last football camp day, he had such a good time I'm sorry it's over.
Everyday when the boys walked on to the football practice field, the varsity football team from Goshen would line up at the gate entrance and clap for them....it was so cute;

Then the boys would all go out and throw the football for a while and then they would do drills.  Gramma, Madalyne and I were having a great time watching Zach work his butt off during drills, practice corners and then some more "Razzle Dazzle"...luckily for Gramma, Zach was on the "skins" team again...I mean, she really didn't want to miss out on that experience!

This is Zach working on his drop kick in a practice corner;

and this is Zach catching;

And this is the camp picture of the 3rd graders, each boy got a t-shirt that says "Goshen Football" on the front and "Be A Good Teammate" on the back:

So that was the beginning of our day...we are only 1.5 hours into this extravaganza folks!

Next we headed to Target, Kohl's and then Applebee's for lunch.
By the time we got to Applebee's, the kids and mom and I were starving and sooo thirsty from being out in the sun all morning.  I felt sorry for our waitress, I think she filled my ice tea and Madalyne's water 12,022,00 times at  least.  Plus the kids just wanted to go home and play with their "prizes" from Gramma!!

Then I had to go to the dentist so Mom stayed home with the kids...God bless her. (and the giant teddy bear we call Daphne who would not leave her side and the puppy who she was "not allowed" to show even one iota of attention to).

All I want to say about the dentist is, apparently my dentist likes to have his patient's heads 2.5 inches off the floor with their legs approximately 4 feet up in the air!  Let me tell you how great that felt with Bootsie along for the ride.  Pretty sure that dental chair was lateral and they both (dentist and hygienist) looked at me like I was strange for being unable to feel my feet afterwards!!

By the time I got back home it was almost time to take Madalyne for her try-outs for Goshen Stars, Mom picked a good day huh?  It's true that she got to see both of her grandbabies doing their thing..but it was a busy day!

Goshen Stars is a traveling soccer league, the kids have to try-out for the league every year and this is Madalyne's first year.  They have to be pretty serious about the game and they have to LOVE IT..because they are going to be playing A LOT...which means...I'll be driving...A LOT.    So here's a glimpse of her try-outs:
The kids are getting instructions from one of the coaches about each of the 5 areas they will be tested on.

Here she is kicking and has to get each one past a cone, then the had to dribble the ball back and forth as many times as possible in a small amount of space, then she was tested on passing the ball, shooting goals and then she had to actually be timed sprinting across the length of the field.  The sun was brutal and she just kept on going!  We were soooo proud of her.

See how brutal the sun is..Zach wouldn't even be out in it!  (ok, really he's playing his DSi..but still)  Please note that Brian wears jeans at work, where he works out in the sun all day...that's all I'm sayin'.

Here's a shot of Brian watching his baby-girl get through her tests, he was guarding her like a hawk (did I mention that she had to test out in a group of all ages? There were some much older girls and boys out there)

Poor baby was HOT HOT HOT...but she never quit.

And Zach had " extra water here" for her..I believe there may have been a small fee though....

THEN they scrimmaged...seriously, it's now 7:30 pm the kids are all exhausted and HOT HOT HOT..so hey, let's play a GAME...ugh.  Did I mention that our little Madalyne was out there with BIG girls???  She not only kept up..she managed to actually steal the ball a couple of times...she amazed us all out there!

Now the poor angel was HOT HOT HOT HOT out there!!

Put she kept going and her team finally scored, won and we got to head out.  Now we wait for the phone call or email to tell us if she made the cut. If she does play, she will be on a U8 team and she will start games in August.  I'll keep you posted.

So now we've gotten to 8:15 p.m. and after much debate we decide to go try out Peterson's Steak and Seafood restaurant.  It was pretty good.  To be honest I was happy the moment I had more ice tea and air conditioning, so the second she brought me out homemade blue cheese dressing, I was in heaven.

Behind us they had tables all set up for a rehearsal dinner for the next night...Mom and I spent most of the dinner having to tell Madalyne, on one of her 10,999,999 trips to the bathroom to, "stay away from the pretty tables"!!

Then Madalyne left us to pursue her dream of becoming Mennonite:

So we were back home around 9:30pm and poor Gramma/Mom now had to drive an hour home!!!  I'm so grateful for her for coming out to spend the day with us.  I needed it badly!!!  It was a great day and I'm not sure how long she slept, but I didn't get up until almost noon today! :-)  I'm using the excuse that I have to switch my hours back to getting used to work hours.  I go back tomorrow...wish me well please.  I'm hoping that Bootsie and I can make it through those 12 hour shifts in the emergency dept. without swelling too badly.
I'll let you know how it goes.