Ben and Saya visit Grandma and Grandpa

This last week has been blessings galore. We had a five-day visit from Ben and Saya. Anything you want to know about our house? Ask Saya.

While here, she taught me to use all 4 remotes, as she is a video buff, an especial friend of Scooby-Doo – the one DVD I couldn’t get to work right.

I think she is slated to be the next mechanical engineer in our family. (Joe and Uncle Jeff, move over.) She checked out the conveyor belt at Sparkle Market and dis-assembled and re-assembled a playschool toy fire truck. (It was meant to come apart and teach a child mechanics.) She learned to play pick-up-sticks using her thumb and pointer finger. And most important of all, Saya read her Beginning Reader books to me. I was so proud.

Ben brought along his guitar and played for us, until a string broke. He and Grandpa had to run to “downtown” Cortland and buy new ones, but they didn’t have the right tool to replace the broken string. Uncle Rob can remedy that. (By the way, Ben has made much guitar progress since he received his guitar at Christmas 2007. He is a joy to hear.)

Ben also made, with Grandpa’s help, a book about rocks. They sent it in to Blurb to be published. (www.blurb.com) He and we will get a copy.

He is an excellent reader and drawer and also very proficient in the kitchen. He made mouth-watering cookies – little sweet shortbreads with butter cream frosting for filling. Before he left, Ben sorted through my cookbooks and chose 3 to take home. He also typed out several recipes – notably cornbread and blueberry muffins – to take with him to use in Aunt Deb’s kitchen.
If Saya is great with mechanical things, Ben is a pro with the cell phone. He took advice from ET and phoned home often.
We did many things together. Both kids learned the virtues of chocolate and tapioca puddings. (Ben now has the recipes.) One day, the people at our retirement community, Lake Vista, held a craft day and Ben and Saya helped sort used greeting cards to be used for something useful in the near future. We watched the birds from our family room window and thrilled at the appearance of a hen pheasant. We always ate together and Ben or Saya usually said the prayer.

We hope to repeat the experience again and would love to have any of you come stay awhile. Just let us know when.

Love you all! Grandma for Grandpa and me