On every first Saturday Home Depot has a Kids’ Workshop and Katie has been taking Kirby to the workshops in Texas. Dan was the designated adult for this one.                 The kids have aprons and they get badges for all the projects they complete.              This month’s project was a wooden car. Dan started the nails for Kirby and she finished the pounding.                There are kids lined up all along the “tables” made of boards and buckets.                     Katie said that Kirby often likes the painting part more than the building part.                                                  Pink was not one of the colors that was offered but we all know what you get when you mix red and white.

                                              Kirby was through enough to want to paint the bottom of the car too.                This activity goes on all morning. While we waited for the paint on Kirby’s car to dry we walked around the garden part of the store and looked at flowers.                                                 Kirby came back for her badge.                                                 Then it was time to put the wheels and the stickers on the car.                        Project finished!

In this post  Katie and Meryl cleaned out the barn. You get used to how cluttered things are and the forget what the space looks like when its cleaned out. Now while Katie was continuing to work the barn made a great place to watch the kids–especially since that week it was so hot.         There was plenty of room to run.            Plenty of room to chase bubbles.

           Plenty of room for drawing with chalk. Notice who is just outside the barn door painting. The kids didn’t know that and I kept them distracted inside.               Someone else needed entertaining too.                      I taught Kirby about hopscotch.

              Aunt Meryl came to the barn to play. While all the names of all the other aunts are are pronounced “aunt” like the 6-legged ant, Kirby says Aunt Meryl with the “au” part as in Australia. We have no idea why because no one else says it that way.                  I hid balls under the rubber tubs and then Kasen just started pushing them around the barn.

              Naptime.

The grandkids went home earlier in the week but I still want to share photos from their time here. Katie’s visit was for almost three weeks and she agreed to spend some of the time painting the barn if she got help with the kids (that’s me).                     I had planned to have the prep work done ahead of time, but I didn’t to that so Katie spent the first day  power-washing.            Uncle Chris gives the best shoulder rides.                      The kids got plenty of exercise outside and definitely needed naps each day.               Before I got into the routine of putting Kasen down for his nap the carseat seemed to  be an easy way to get him to sleep. One lap with the carseat in the wagon and he was out.              Then it was time to go to the house with Kirby to work on a project.              She helped to warp the rigid heddle loom with a project in her favorite color.           Back to the barn after nap time.          Katie admitted that she got carried away with the power washer on the inside of the barn. It looked great because she and Meryl (DIL) moved all the clutter out of the alleyway. (I still have to figure out where to put all that stuff that was moved.)             The puddles were irresistible for Kasen.

                  I asked for this green wagon for Christmas because I knew that I could use it during lambing season. It sure came in handy during this time with the kids here.  I found that I could even drag the wheelbarrow and the wagon at the same time.