An invitation to a tea by Gavin’s 2nd grade class.  We “adopt” his friend, Keenan, whose grandparents are out of town and they serve us tea and lemonade and assorted muffins.  The boys are so energetic it makes my head spin.  But right in the middle of a school day Monday, my grandson gives me a hug and a kiss and he’s is so glad we are there, I can tell.  And Keenen likes us, too.

I pull into the driveway at their house to drop off their cousin and two little Kelley girls run to meet me.  “Nonna!! ,” squeals Gemma, and she jumps up to hug me through the window with abanoned glee at my arrival.  Guini is slightly more reserved but makes her way to me, “Oh, it is my lovely Nonna,”  she says, touching my face, and she kisses my cheek and hugs me through the car window.

Know what is sweeter than kissing a grandbebe goodnight?  Waking their warm little faces with a quiet kiss in the mornings.  Hunter spent the night and was my little sweety-pie-let’s-have-hot-buttered-toast-for-breakfast guy.  I miss having a little person in the house.  How did those years go so quickly?

Averi’s momma says Averi has my feet.  I ask her, “Do you have Nonna”s feet, Miss Averi?”  Yes, she tells me AND we both have bejeweled flip flops.  We lie in the grass looking at the clouds and prop our feet up on a retaining wall and take a picture of our cute shoes to remember the moment.  Averi thinks mine  are pretty and she tries them on.   We chat about all sorts of nothing before she insists I push way high in the swing.

Good, and I mean, really good times!

“THE most amazing thing about getting to be a grandparent is that the very kids you made so many mistakes on

(may have-could have damaged irreparably) 

grow up and honor you by trusting you with their babies.  Could there be a greater grace?”

You may quote me on this!  It is true!

The first five: Guini, Averi, Hunter, Gavin and Gemma. (group shots by Aunt Stormie)

And baby Amelie Belle…soon to have her own plastic weapon.

NOTE:  To be able to view and pause photos a little more slowly, click on “View All Images.”  You can control it from there.

GAVIN, HUNTER, GUINIVERE, GEMMA, & AVERI ~ 

I love you my little Grandbébes. 

Happy days and love and kisses from your Nonna! 

You light up my life.  You are my sunshine.  All I ever need is you. 

Why do stars fall down from the sky everytime you walk by? 

Just like me they long to be close to you. 

I need you like the flowers need the rain. 

You made me love you and I’d be lost without your love. 

I can’t stop loving you.  I will always love you and I won’t last a day without you. 

Unforgettable-that’s what you are.  It’s impossible, I wish I had more than words to tell you…

And I love you so.  I don’t want to miss a thing. 

Somewhere out there, I must have done something good. 

I believe in you, my little grandbebes.  God only knows where I’d be without you. 

Don’t make me go on…because I could!

Love.

Love.

Love.

From NONNA!

(There are 89 images in the slide show…I can’t help it.  My grandbebes are soooo cute!)

“Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass on a summer day listening to the murmur of water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is hardly a waste of time.”  ~John Lubbock

Gavin.

Gavin toyed with an Edward-do, a la Twilight (the movie), before settling on a mop-top later in the summer.  He is such a sweet, freckle-faced kid.  He turned me into Nonna 6 years ago this summer.  This summer we went to the nursery together and I helped him put together his very first, very own planters of flowers and tomatoes (a passion we share).  He changed my life forever.

Hunter.

My little inquisitive, curious, talkative, adventurer, Hunter, will be 5 soon.  He questions everything, knows something about all topics and is growing like a weed.  This was the summer I had to make a lot of deals with him to get photographs.  If I take one of him, he gets to take one of me.  He is the perfect mix of both his mommy and his daddy and he always asks me, “Did you miss me while I was gone, Nonna?  Are you so glad to see me again?”  I so did and I so am.

Guinivere.

I call Guini my flower girl.  She loves beautiful blooms and picks them every chance she gets.  She likes to play “flower shop” when she comes to visit.  She is quiet, but decided, mysterious and cuddly – but you have to be ready to drop everything for the magic moment, for it can be fleeting.  We hang out, she’s my girl.

Gemma.

This was the summer of Gemma in the quinitessential yellow sundress.  It matches her vibrancy and her spirit.  I wanted one just like it!  She is hilarious and she is two.  She is very good at it.  But she is also very helpful.  She sunscreened herself before outings, or during “naptimes” or whenever she could - a lot!  She’s my little “sweet petite,” who cannot keep her jeans up since she started wearing big-girl undies!

Averi.

Averi-baby is on the run.  All. the. time.  Except when it is time to eat.  She and I share that hobby!  From certain angles, I feel like it’s the early 80′s and I’m chasing Tredessa again.  She loves to wear (and break) my reading glasses and when mommy and daddy go somewhere, she asks me, “Where’s mama?  Where’s Rocky?”  Every now and then while we are running around the backyard together, she will stop and tell me the most hilarious story and uproariously laugh at her own joke.  It cracks me up.

These are the 5 smile-bringers of my summer.  Of my life.  I don’t deserve them, and yet they are here.  And all they do is bring me joy.

Related post:  Scenes from a Good Summer ~ Heaven Fest

Twice a month, we get the Kelley kids on Sunday mornings.  This was getting ready for church last week.

They do make life grand!

Guinivere Eden.

Guini jumps on my lap, wraps her arms tightly around my neck and with an almost-urgency says, “I need you, Nonna.”  I look to see if a boogey-man has been chasing her, but I see no one.  I ask, “What do you need?”  She tells me, “I just need you, Nonna.”  I am overcome with gratefulness that she does.  I hug her tightly back.  The moment vanishes and she off to play again.

Hunter Douglas.

Hunter tells his mommy, “I need to speak to you in regards to…”  He is four.  What does a four-year-old know about “regarding?”  Today he is busy cutting out paper crosses.  He says he wants to put them all over the ground at Heaven Fest so that people will be able to worship Jesus there.

Gavin Lee.

Grandpa will be taking Gavin to school while his mommy is at the dentist.  “It’s almost time to go,” Grandpa tells the little red-head.  Gavin looks his grandpa up and down.  “I think you forgot to change your shorts…and that shirt,” he says, clearly concerned that his grandpa will not be meeting the fashion standard at the schoolyard.  Dave is wearing a orange t-shirt (which I ask him not to wear, but he believes to be quite comfortable on his work-at-home days) and some navy stretch shorts (which, though they are the closest things you can wear to pajamas in public, are nice).  I laugh my head off and wonder whatever Gavin will think of us by the time he reaches 1st grade next fall?!?

Averi Jadyn.

“O wow o wow o wow o wow,” Averi said to me the other day.  Despite the remaining fullness in her cheeks, both those seen and unseen, Averi is getting taller and thinning out, growing into her baby weight as she darts from room to room as quickly as her little legs will carry her.  Averi’s true passion in life is putting all her new teeth to work.  She loves food with great zeal and loudly mourns the end of every meal or snack time.  This, I am certain, she inherited from me.

Gemma May.

What a saucy little redhead!  When she walks in a room, it is with great fanfare as she invites, “‘Ook at me!  ‘Ook at me!”  Then usually, and with great authority, she’ll spew some cursory commands at Sandy-the-Dog, who wishes for nothing more than to slink from Gemma’s sight before her tail is yanked on unmercifully or Gemma hops aboard for a ride.  Gemma’s life is spent in pursuit of any reason whatsoever to laugh.  She never fails to respond to my affectionate “I-love-you” with a very bright response in her quivering little lamb voice: “I wuv you!”

Who knew it could bring this much?…Jeanie-the-Nonna

NOTE TO SELF:  I am being fully compensated.

Pictured, left to right: Averi, 8 months; Hunter, 4; Guini, 3; Gemma (in Gavin’s grasp), 1; Gavin, 5

O God, thank-You for these, my amazing five!  They’re the reason I was born!  They are my heritage-the gift You have given me.  The eternal things I place in them are the legacy I will leave. 

I pray Your Word will always be in their mouths.  I pray that Gavin and Guini, Hunter and Gemma and Averi will grow up hiding Your Word in their hearts and will choose, even now, to serve You and You alone.  I pray these five, my little amazings, will seek You for wisdom and will receive knowledge and understanding from Your heart for their lives.  May their worship rise to You.  May their song reach Your ears and bring You joy.

Thank-you for the gift of them, Lord.  I will tell my grandbabies of Your faithfulness.  I will declare Your great works to this generation.  I am watching for the spiritual harvest, Lord.  Because I am sowing to the Spirit – I am watching for the harvest…

I am so honored God has brought me this incredibly noisy, full and increasing heritage.  He is making all my dreams come true…Gavin, Guinivere, Hunter, Gemma and Averi’s “Nonna”

NOTE TO SELF:  I have earned the gray hair and grandma wrinkles-even if I don’t yet wish to avail myself of them.

“Enjoy the good life…everyday of your life.  And enjoy your grandchildren…”  Psalm 128.6 The Message