Modern Day Mama: Belated Grandparent's Day Photos

Last Sunday I was up very early thanks to little Miss Vi, and as she was watching Curious George I was perusing Facebook. Some relatives had posted a photo of three children waving to their faraway grandpa to wish him Happy Grandparents Day.

I had totally forgotten that it was Grandparent's Day and felt quite guilty about it. The first thing I did was call Grandma Maxine. It had been weeks since I had seen them and I was truly feeling neglectful and guilty. We were having a great talk when my stupid cell phone started losing reception. I called her back and we were once again in the middle of a great talk when my phone again dropped the call. I hadn't even had a chance to tell her Happy Grandparents Day.

I was sulking around and chastising myself for blowing it and not remembering to send cards or anything. It was about 11. Violet was sleeping, Bo was drawing and Shawn and Mazy were getting groceries. That's when it hit me. It was only 11 a.m. and I had plenty of time to get to work and celebrate my grandparents like they deserved.

So I called in my little sous chef Bo and we got to work on a batch of chocolate chip cookies for all the grandpas. As they were baking, I ran to the basement to find some tins and baskets for packaging them up. When the final batch was out, we woke up Violet and packed up all of our stuff. Mazy decided to stay home with Shawn to watch the Packers, so Bo, Violet and I left for Panora to start delivering our gifts.

Our first stop was the Morrisburg Cemetery where we ate a cookie with Grandma Betty and took a couple of pics. Next we went to Grandpa Keith's to drop off his cookies. He wasn't home so Bo and I left a note with his basket of cookies.

Then we drove to Panora for a quick stop at Panorama Gardens to pick out some colorful mums for my mom and Grandma Maxine. Violet picked yellow mums for Grandma Maxine and Bo chose deep orange for Grandma Katy. Dave the florist decorated the pots with pretty foil and ribbons and we were off again.

As we were driving to the farm, Grandpa Keith called to say he must have just missed us. We talked for a bit and he thanked us for the cookies.

We delivered a mum to my mom at the farm, and dropped off cookies for my dad who was out chopping corn for someone. We invited Mom to join us on our visit to Linden to deliver our final gifts to Gma Maxinea and Gpa Pud. They were surprised and happy to see us. We visited with them for about 2 hours. Gpa Pud is a big fan of Miss Violet's. She warms right up to him quickly and has a devoted playmate for tea parties, reading books and playing with the Hotwheels.

During our visit, Grandpa mentioned flipping through the channels on the TV recently and coming across a young country western singer at a submarine museum who was singing hs favorite song, "Bell Bottomed Trousers." He asked me if I could track down the record of her singing it.... Grandpa turns 91 in about two weeks and I'll tell you there's nothing I wouldn't do for that dear, wonderful man. But tracking down that recording has been a challenge... I started by Googling it, hoping something might turn up. But it didn't. Next I sent emails to three naval museums in Atlanta and Nashville area (that's where he thought the museum was) to see if they knew what I was talking about. I received almost immediate replies from all of them, but no one had held a concert this summer... So now I don't know what to do. But I'll keep trying!

After their house, we went back to the farm for supper and then headed back to Des Moines at 8. It made me really happy that I was able to visit them all and let them know how much I value them in my life.

A few pics from that very perfect day: