We visited Grandma Rowena this past weekend

She invited us down to Albia for their town's Restoration Days Celebration.  We went for the celebration two years ago (or was it 1 yr ago? I can not remember!).  We drove down right after we picked Violet up from school at 3 pm, and arrived by 5:45.  The two older kids slept in the car, I thought for sure Vanessa would fall asleep but she did not, instead, she sqwaked and squealed the whole time.  Mama Row had a delicious dinner waiting.  She made BBQ beef ribs, okra with tomatoes, corn on the cob (cut off the cob), cornbread, and peach cobbler with ice cream.  There was more but I don't remember.  It may come back to me.  Vanessa terrorized the place, taking things from any available location and relocating them to any other available location.  Ahh!  She was a challenge but Mama Row was pretty calm about it all.  Calvin broke an abacus, but Dave put it back together with a little glue and a rubber band.

Friday night we spent walking around the square.  I just can not believe she is 85 years old.  She doesn't seem to have changed at all since I remember her from when I was a young child.  She's still energetic, healthy, and very physically able.  She told me she's had all her numbers checked and all are normal.  We stopped to look inside the windows of all the stores, she pointed out all the puppets in the store where she got Violet's llama and Calvin's dragon puppets.  People on the square were setting up their tents and things getting ready for the next day's celebration. 

The kids played card games with Mama Row (crazy 8s, Go Fish) and all got in bed shortly after the walk around the block.  Vanessa slept in Grandma's room with Dave and I, she slept in the small bedroom with one twin bed, and V and C shared the room with two twins.  It took awhile to get the kids calmed down, they were so excited to be there.  Grandma's elevator is the main attraction.  Once they finally settled, we tried helping her with some ipad/e-book issues but couldn't resolve them.  The sleeping arrangements worked out well.

The next morning the kids woke up bright and early thanks to the huge skylight window in their bedroom.  Grandma got them dressed and took them outside to the town square to have some pancakes and sausage that the Albia Lion's Club served up in celebration of 90 years of existence.  We woke up later and found a note in the kitchen explaining where they went.  We got ready quickly and joined them for breakfast but they were done eating and walking around.  Dave and I ate, gave Vanessa some breakfast too but she didn't want anything.  We got ready for the parade at 10 am, going back to her place to clean up sticky hands, bring along water, and find a spot to set up our chairs on the corner to watch the parade.  Vanessa sat in the stroller, V and C were on the curb, bolting up every chance they got to snag candy off the street.  They both ate a lot of candy and I think it ruined their appetites for lunch.  The parade was really neat too, lots of stuff...even a little demo from the Chicago Boyz acrobatic team on the street.  Mom, I have a video clip to show you of their performance!

After the parade we went back to her place to use the bathrooms, drop off our candy, put Vanessa down for a nap, and take Violet and Calvin back to the square to watch the Chicago Boyz perform their acrobatics.  Grandma stayed with Vanessa.  The Chicago Boyz team did some cool jump roping tricks, bounced off the mini tramp and did flips over people. 

Mama Row had prepared a macaroni and cheese casserole for lunch, so after the show we went back to her place to eat.  She also served tomatoes and carrots.  Calvin stuck a whole tomato in his mouth and ate it.  It was really good but the kids did not eat much, probably too much candy.  We tried to get them to lay down for a little bit and rest but they were not having it...they giggled and goofed around the whole time. 

They had wanted to see "the jumping things" (big inflatable slides) so we took V and C there, Grandma stayed back with Vanessa.  They jumped and bounced to their heart's content for a couple hours.  They were absolutely filthy.  I don't think I've ever seen them so dirty.  They even climbed in a big "sand"box filled with field corn, so they were up to their heads and down to their toes covered in dirt and corn dust.  We got them in the tub as soon as we got back from all the jumping.  Dave and I sipped fresh cherry lemonade while we watched them jump.  There were 6 inflatable things so they spent a lot of time on each one.

The bath didn't exactly turn out to be a bath - it was more like they took showers.  The tub thing didn't stay up and keep the water plugged.  I got soaked in the showering process...but they both came out sparkling clean.  Mama Row had ingredients ready to start dinner, and got the kids immediately involved making supper.  She had them spread out the pizza dough in the pan and sprinkle on the toppings (broccoli, green peppers, red onions, salami, sauce, and cheese).  Despite my initial feelings about a pizza being good that had broccoli on it, the pizza came out very delicious, and we all enjoyed it.  She also served a spinach salad with cranberries, feta cheese, walnuts and dijon dressing.  Dave cut up a delicious watermelon.

We left around 7 pm after packing our stuff up.

Vanessa discovered where we kept the loot from the parade, and quickly discovered the taste of tootsie rolls. 

 This is as close as she got to smarties.

 A fire truck blasted its siren, kids screamed and plugged their ears!

 Vanessa warmed up to Mama Rowena finally, which she was just tickled about!

 Making pizza