Ah! Grandchildren

Our visit with the Morgans the last few days gave us lots of fun opportunities to connect with our grandchildren. Claire had a presentation on historic Charleston architecture along with other members of her SAIL class and she also participated in a fifth grade talent show later that evening.

Each student studied and made a 'to scale' model of an historic building after taking the actual measurements from the building downtown. Claire chose the Pink House.

Claire taught herself Minuet in G from one of Gray's old piano books. Perhaps we have a budding muscian in the family.


Friday, after much loading of gear and restraining of children, we headed to the Isle of Palms for a day at the beach. We like to use the county park there with its excellent facilities, parking and umbrella rentals. Unfortunately, the umbrella/chair rental company hadn't set up business for the summer yet. With Collier in tow we came up with an alternate method of keeping him sunburn-free.

There's a baby under all that toweling.

Saturday morning we packed the kids up once more and visited the Marion Square Farmers' Market for a morning of strolling through the vendor booths of fresh veggies, cooked treats, herbs, art and jewelry. It was kick-off Saturday for the Spoleto Festival so there were more vendors than usual and tons of people. Families with small children were in abundance and Hamilton loved the jump castle, one of several on site. The sun was bright but there was adequate shade for relaxing on a blanket and feeding wee Collier.

Though I'm not much of a photographer, I was able to capture a couple of cute photos of Collier smiling.

Travis urged us to stop by his place in Columbia on our way home ( I think he really wanted to see Hamilton more than us) and we enjoyed having supper downtown at Jason's Deli where there's complimentary ice cream at the end of every meal. Hamilton enjoyed his cone-the first, I think, for him- more than I can describe. We laughed 'til our sides hurt trying to get him to understand that he could bite the cone and eat it too!

Fruits of Our Labor

Our winter gardening efforts are paying off. I picked a small mess of sugar snap peas on Monday along with a cabbage, some side shoots of broccoli and a handful of strawberries. I added the snap peas to a scallop/ mushroom/alfredo sauce I was cooking and served it over angel hair pasta for our supper. Delish! 
I used the cabbage to make slaw for our salad supper at church on Wednesday night. Rather than the traditional coleslaw I typically make, I used an apple coleslaw recipe I found on the internet from Food Network http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/wolfgang-puck/apple-coleslaw-recipe/index.html  This sweet and tangy salad combines apples, cabbage, carrots, onion and parsley among other things with a poppy seed honey dressing. Definitely a keeper.

What A Beauty

Several years ago Claire Trammell gave me a rooting of a New Dawn rose from her yard. I left it in the pot for the first year and then planted it at the bottom of an arbor we have at my perennial garden the following year. New Dawn is an old fashioned, pale pink, climbing rose that blooms profusely around Mother's Day and then sporadically during the summer and until frost. It's an easy-care rose, unlike hybrid tea roses, and doesn't require much attention. True to the adage "first year they sleep, second they creep, and third they leap" the plant has covered the entire curvature of the arbor. Beautiful! Thanks Claire.

Cowboy Windows

In anticipation of the arrival of Collier, Gray moved Hamilton from the nursery weeks ago into what had been the guest room. She used a cowboy theme after finding some really cute fabric in that genre. I made the window valances and Elaine made laminated shades to coordinate with them. Seth hung the shades recently so I took some pictures of the windows while I was in Hanahan for Collier's birth.

I used rawhide strips that Dale tied into little nooses as the hangers.

A faux rawhide fringe was added to the shade bottom.
Yippee, yi-yo, ki-yay!

Arachnophobia

One of the fun things about being around grandchildren for an extended period is getting to see how they like to spend their time. Claire loves to make and build things. She can stay focused on one project for hours. Dale and I had given her a Hex Bug for her birthday back in January (at the insistance of another child her age) and she used some of her own money to buy lots of gear to go with it. She and Seth enjoyed setting up elaborate configurations for the newly acquired bugs to navigate. While we were with her this visit, she wanted to show me how it all worked. If you've not seen this modern use for microchips you'll be impressed by the genius of some inventer who's probably made millions creating a lively version of  these arthropods. It just makes me want to stomp them!

Collier Is Here

Collier Welch Morgan arrived with appropriate fanfare on Thursday, April 28 at 5:02pm. He weighed in at 9 pounds, twenty and one-half inches long. Dale and I went to Hanahan the day before his birth so that we could tend to Hamilton and Claire while Momma and Daddy Morgan met their appointment with the hospital.

We're so excited about this new addition to our family and I couldn't wait to see Hamilton's reaction to his little brother. Claire, Hamilton and I made several visits to the hospital during the three days Gray and Seth were confined. The highlight for Hamilton was getting to push the elevator button. Now he seems to be taking the new 'bebe' in stride as the Morgan household settles into a more familiar routine. Dale has been in and out as his schedule permits. I'll be staying a few more days. How thankful to God we all are that Collier is here, healthy, and beloved.