Those lazy daz of summer reading!!!

I remember with much love and fondness the summer days that my 3 Granddaughters and I would take part in the "Summer Reading Program" presented by the library in our home town.  First let me introduce my 3 Girls to you...Sydnie is my first Grandchild,  then there is Eden...you've already met Eden but she is my middle Grandchild, and then there comes my next Grandchild and my last Granddaughter Abby, who is Sydnie's younger and only Sister. So there you have 'My 3 Girls'!!! I only had 2 sons so there little ladies were mine to spoil and dote over all I wanted to!!!...and I wanted to all the time!!!  Okay... back to the story...I do tend to memory wonder and that is okay too...I've lived long enough to have earned that privilege!!!
We girls would spend our summers going to the library when they would hold their 'Summer Reading Program'. The girls would pledge how many books they would read in the specified time and write the number on a card kept by the Librarian. The first year, they said they wanted to read 100 books each...well of course if one says 100 the others wouldn't dare have less! So...there we were with a pledge to read 300 books...okey...let's get started!!! You have to understand that I believe Sydnie and Eden were the only two in school and I think they were in 3rd grade and preschool respectively... so most of the books we checked out were very short on words and long on pictures!!!  I would check out about 20 or so books of their choosing and we would go to a park (weather permitting) and on a blanket under a big shade tree we would cuddle up together and begin our ~Summer Reading Program~!!!  The books that were read had to be written down on a special piece of paper given to us by the Librarian which was a very good way of keeping track of which books we had already read. I would read afew and then the girls would take turns reading or learning to read and then we would take turns again until all the books were read. If we had time...we would even go back to the library and check out afew more!  Sometimes we would just stay there and lay on the cushions they provided in the reading area and cuddle together again and take turns reading out loud. Those were the happiest, lazy, days of summer that I'd had in a long time...and what better way to spend it!!! These little ladies were not the typical giggly, silly-willies when we were into the book stories...they were very attentive and seemed to hang on every word. Now, maybe after the story was over...we sometimes became rather silly-willy but that was okay too...after all we were just 4 little girls spending our lazy days of summer together!!! When the Summer Reading Program drew to an end...My 3 Girls had indeed finished their pledges and turned in their reading lists with all 100 book titles on them!!! I was almost as tickled as they were when the Librarian gave each of the girls a Bookplate for them to put their name on and then she pasted it inside the front cover of their favorite book!!! Wow...what an honor and I think they felt that way too for you could just see the beams of pride of accomplishment on their little faces!!! In addition they also were presented with a bag of goodies, pencil, eraser, stickers, coupons for fast food goodies and of course a  bookmark and  praised by the Librarian. Of course Grammie's buttons were bursting too with pride and pleasure knowing what they really had accomplished during our days under the shade tree...they had learned and loved to read!!! We returned for several years to the "Summer Reading Program" and as they grew older, the number of books pledged decreased greatly as we continued to lay out under a shade tree or on the library cushions and share their new found love of reading... now...chapter books!  Sometimes we would each have our own book that we might just want to take home and read by ourselves but that didn't happen very often. I have seen what their love of reading has done for them as they have all been on the Honor Roll most of their school years...now Sydnie is out of school, Eden will graduate mid-year and Abby is a high school freshman!!! Wow...how fast they grow up...seems like just yesterday!!!  I have always told them that they can go where ever they want to go by just reading a book!!! I am even more tickled now in the fact that Eden and Abby have shown a great love and ability to write! They have filled journals with their writings...maybe a thought, a poem, a short story and even the beginnings of a chapter book, but they have that longing and who knows...maybe someday they will become an author of a  Bestselling novel...I wouldn't put it past them at all!!! 
If I never do another thing in my life...when I leave I will know that I have given My 3 Girls my legacy...the love of reading!!!  Life doesn't get much better than that!!!

MY SWEET E

Let me tell you about my middle granddaughter...what a sweetie!!!  She calls me Grams and that is fine with me!!!  Eden is the daughter of my 'baby boy~Jimmy'.  Eden is tall and thin, blonde hair and greeish hazel eyes.  She is a senior now and has a job as a "Sandwich Architect" at Subway!  She has a sweet little car and it has air-conditioning so when ever she stays with Grams we take her car and I pay!!!  Seems like a plan to me!  Right now I am suppose to be making her an Owl Purse.  She had the idea and I drew up a right-handsome looking owl if I do say so myself.  Then we went to Wal*mart and picked up the fabric.  Mr Owl will be grey, plaid with a black felt tummy and two big orange and black eyes.   I found the cutest lime green fabric with little bright colored owls in it and that will be the lining.  We have such a good time together and it has been a long time coming!!!  As a little girl before she started school, I would take care of her and she would stay for over-nights with me and we would craft!!!  Oh yeah, how to keep a three to four year old little girl entertained!!!  One night we made Santa Clause, his sleigh and all 8 raindeers out of red and white pipe cleaners...what fun we had and how grand that old man and his raindeeers looked!!!  She was sooo excited and to this day...13 years later...she still puts them out under their little Christmas tree at her home.  Hey, life doesn't get much dandier than that my friends!!!