Levi's first sleep over!

This was Levi's first sleep-over! He and Finley spent the night with Nana and Pappy last night.

We explored the house:

We played with Pappy:

Then we ate waffles and bacon for supper and Levi was sound asleep by 7:00 p.m. AND he slept all night. I know, because I got up and checked on him every two hours. Finley even slept all night - but I had to threaten her life so she would stay in bed around 10:00. Sunday morning, Levi brought his bottle and watched the news with Nana and Pappy in bed.

Pappy threw him in the air a few times - just to make sure the milk was digested well.

Just hanging out with Nana.

After breakfast, we all went outside to watch Pappy work on the sidewalk. That lasted about 30 minutes, then it was too hot. We left Pappy to work and went back inside to watch cartoons.

Then he found the secret hiding hole under the bunk bed:

For lunch we had tuna casserole and cheese bacon biscuits. Levi thought it was great - Finely spit it out and wiped off her tongue. Oh well, can't please everybody...

Levi hung out for a while with Pappy after his nap:

We put Levi on the scales to see how much he weighed - 22 pounds - but the first picture came out blurry:

So I asked Mike to put him back on the scales again - but he rolled backwards off the scales and it scared him, so here's the next picture:

Momma - come get me - I've had enough fun for one weekend!

This was Ryllee's weekend at the farm with Nana and Pappy. She'll be five next weekend and we had such a good time. Well, my blog site has gone to heck in a handbasket. None of my pictures are posting in the right place - and after 4 tries, I really don't care anymore. So there. Nothing's going to be in order - or in the right place. This will be like putting a puzzle together. I hope you enjoy a challenge! We started the weekend with a cool mani-pedi then jumped in the truck for the trip. God bless Apple and Ipad's. It totally makes the trip bearable. Even Frankie was chillin'. We picked dewberries out in the field. You know, blackberries are big, dewberries are small. You have to really work hard to pick enough to make jelly. It only took Ryllee about 3 minutes to figure out the thorns were a bad idea. So, the rest of the afternoon, she would find some and point and I stuck my hands down in the thorns to pick them. One of us is really smart! Everybody works at the farm. Water those plants! Get to work! Fine. Go ahead and take a break. Have a good time with Pappy - I'll just stand over here and work. Well, maybe I'll just take more pictures. Saturday morning we got up and tried to find the birds in the trees that were making all that racket. Cousin It and her side kick Little It. Ryllee's growing her hair to be as long as Nana's. We found a baby cricket!! How exciting is that?? So we captured him and put him in the bucket with grass. Yeah, that makes captivity all better. But we picked a flower to brighten his cell before he was released into the wild. This tiny skinny child is an eating machine. She looks like she doesn't ever eat - but all weekend: Nana, I need a snack, I need an apple, I need a fruit snack, a juice, milk, crackers, the kitchen sink, the couch...oh wait, maybe I got carried away. The child eats every hour on the hour. She ought to be as wide as she is tall. Pappy spent all day mowing the back pasture and took Ryllee for a spin. I can't believe I'm even putting this picture in - I don't even go to the grocery store without makeup. But we were so tired, we took a 2 hour nap. We took a quick trip Sunday morning into Lufkin for supplies from Lowes. Check out those muscles. Yes, farm life is hard work! Then we came back and got dressed for church. Isn't she adorable? Saturday morning, she said she wanted a pair of shiny black shoes. I said, "this is Corrigan and there's only a Dollar Store here! Where am I going to find shoes?" So we went to the Dollar Store and I thought I could distract her with a toy. There was one pair of shiny black shoes in her size sitting there. That was $7 well spent! After church, we had more yard work. Then the drive home. More Ipad and more Frankie chillin'. She found out that Mom and Dad bought a new pool for the back yard and couldn't wait to get home. We instantly became second place to that! Dad came to pick her up when we got home and she practically jumped head first into the back seat. Oh well, that's life. We had a great weekend!

Nana and Pappy took Finley to the farm by herself for the first time.  She tried on Pappy's hat to make sure she looked good in a straw hat.

We were on the road when I realized we had not brought along her blanket.  THE BLANKET.  The blanket that she drags around the house morning, noon and night.  The blanket she's never slept without. OMG!  I somehow forgot the blanket!  I tried adult reasoning and explained that we were going to have to buy a new blanket at the next Walmart we found.  I took her in to the baby section and we looked at all the blankets and she calmly chose a Dora fleece blanket.  Then I distracted her from concentrating on the new blanket, by getting 3 new outfits and a new pair of shoes.  A girl can't resist shopping!

 

It worked! She sat in the backseat with a box of honey bees buzzing on the floor and didn't fuss about it.  We had been in the truck for 3 hours and she hadn't stopped talking, singing, crying, laughing, talking some more and 30 minutes outside of Corrigan, she fell asleep - with her new blankie!    There is nothing to compare to the power of a Nana.

Here's one of her dresses.  Doesn't she look cute- but I think she knows it.

 Saturday night we all had spaghetti at Stella and Ben's house next door.  Here Finley's eating dinner with Grandmother.

Here she is eating with PaPa.

She thought the chocolate cake was the best and wanted a second piece.  However, I, being the possessor of Nana power, knew that a second helping of sugar meant I wasn't going to bed early. Oh come on- she only cried for a few minutes....

See, I knew what I was talking about.  Sleeping like an Angel.

Mike and I snuck outside early Sunday morning to enjoy a cup of hot tea and listen to the birds while Finley slept in.  We must have been too loud because she didn't sleep long.  But she was willing to sit in my lap for a while.

Pappy made us breakfast which was a big hit.  She insists on wearing a bandana on her head as soon as I put one on.  Look at that face!!

 

I brought along a plastic fish watering can for her to help water the plants.  She put on her rubber boots, her hat, sunscreen and we watered the muscadines, the sunflowers, the pecan trees and the grape vines. She got a little tired and had to sit a while.

Very independent.  She didn't want me to help at all.  She wanted to hold the water hose all by herself.

After she soaked herself with the water hose, we changed into another pair of pajamas!  Then we walked next door to see cousin Stella.

 Finley is such a good worker!  She walked and watered and walked and watered.  I gave her the Ipad to look at on the way home and she was asleep within 5 minutes and slept almost the whole trip.  YESSSS!

Finley's trip to the farm is over - we had such a good time!

We finally did it!  We picked up our honey bees from R. Weaver Apiaries on Saturday morning.  They came in their own little wooden screen box for transport.   We put them in the backseat of the truck with our 2 year old granddaughter, Finley and headed to the farm.  Caution:  hold the box by the wooden ends and not the screen side!

The queen is hanging in the middle of the box in her own tiny little cage giving off pheromones so the other bees will start to accept her.

Here’s the bottom box of the hive getting ready for the bees.  We removed 4 to 5 of the frames to make room for the bees.  There’s the bee brush to move the bees around without crushing them.  There’s my gloves that protects my hands and arms.  And there’s the bottle of sugar water to feed the little guys until they start collecting pollen.

Here’s the last picture I took for a few minutes.  Did you know you cannot use the iphone camera with leather gloves on? I know! It surprised me too!  However, when Mike took the lid off the bee box to remove the queen – they were really ticked off.  They came zooming out of that box flying around and I was SO GLAD I had on a bee hat, veil, leather gloves, and Velcro around my ankles so they did not fly up my pants legs!   I promise, every possible bee available opening was covered up!

After we hung the queen in her little cage in the bottom box, we sprayed the bees with sugar water to make them sticky – it makes shaking them out of the little box into their new home a little easier.  That’s right, you turn the small box upside down and SHAKE them into the big box on top of the queen.    They love her and groom her and feed her until they can get her out of her little tiny cage.  It has a candy plug at the bottom that they have to eat through to get to her.

Whatever bees don’t come out of the box when you shake it, they get to climb out on their own.  So you put the box on the ground and somehow they figure out how to escape out that great big hole in the top and get in the big box.

This is the entrance for the bees for the first couple of weeks.  It’s right there.  See it?  Ok, it’s “bee” hind that clump of bees.  Oh come on – it’s the first pun today!

Here’s the final picture of the hive.  The top honey super also has frames and there’s a lid on top of that which makes it really heavy.  However, a couple of weeks ago something knocked the top lid off a couple of inches and several red wasps decided it was the perfect place to live.  Mike had the honor of getting rid of them – without wasp spray.  You can’t spray poison into a bee hive!

OK, one last picture.  I’m happy, happy, happy that this experience is over.  This is the happy face of a new “bee-keeper.” 

Maybe I shouldn’t be allowed to take my own picture anymore….