Do these hot summer days have your grandchildren wound tight like a spring – coiled and ready for action?  If so, get their hands focused (and busy) making foldables.

And what are foldables?  I’m glad you asked.  Foldables are things you make out of paper simply by printing, cutting, and folding.

PaperFoldables.com has a plethora of free patterns of people, animals, pinatas, and ‘thingies’ like a jellyfish and a typewriter.  (Do today’s kids even know what a typewriter is?)

Go to PaperFoldables.com.  Click on the desired foldable.  The pattern opens in a new window. Print it on white paper.  Cut along the lines.  Then fold.  Viola!  You have a finished paper foldable.

For older grandchildren, you could encourage them to create their own foldable.  This will definitely get their creative juices flowing.  They could either base their design on one of the Paper Foldables’ patterns or create their own from scratch.  Make sure you have plenty of paper and crayons or markers on hand.

What if your grandchildren don’t live close by?  Not to worry!  Download the pattern from the Paper Foldables web site by right clicking on the picture of the foldable and saving it to your computer.  E-mail it to your grandchild so he could do it at home.

You might ask him to send you a picture of his completed foldable — especially if he created his own design.

Hey!  Maybe you might want to make your own!  Now that’s a thought.

Here’s another thought.  Challenge all of your grandchild to a paper foldable contest.  Regardless of where the grandchildren live, they can all participate.

Have each one of them create a foldable of their own design.  Then, submit a picture of it to an unbiased judge (grandpa).  The judge then awards prizes:  most original, most colorful, most clever.  Whatever.  (The judge would need to make sure that every entry wins an award.)

Then, send out a family newsletter via e-mail with pictures of each entry and the names of the winners.  Ya know, this could even turn into an annual family event . . .

On the Memorial Day Week-End, my husband and I went camping with another family in Southern Utah near Bryce Canyon.  Before we left, I warned them that when the Lewises go camping it rains.  True to form, it rained.

I was planning on making a Dutch Oven apple cobbler for dessert Saturday evening.  The rain changed our plans and the cobbler never got baked.  To make up for the missed dessert, I invited the family over a couple of days ago and made the cobbler.  I told them to imagine that we had just gotten back from hiking the red sandstone trails in Bryce and pretend we were sitting around the fire eating our treat.  I don’t know about them, but I really enjoyed our delayed dessert while visiting and sitting on our patio.

If you don’t have a Dutch Oven, I suggest you get one.  You can have some grand cooking adventures with your grandchildren.  Besides the usual stew or chili that most people like to make, I have made pizza, Caramel Layered Chocolate cake, rolls, breakfast hash — and more

Cooking in a Dutch Oven is easy.  Way easy.  And a fruit cobbler is one of the easiest things to make!  I suggest you start with this and move on from here.

Easiest Ever Fruit Cobbler

3 (21 ounce) cans fruit pie filling (cherry, apple, blueberry, etc.)
1 (12 ounce) can soda pop
1 dry cake mix
12 inch Dutch Oven

Line the Dutch Oven with aluminum foil for easy clean up.  Put the fruit pie filling in the oven.  Dump the dry cake mix on top of the fruit.  Pour the soda pop over the dry cake mix.  DO NOT STIR!

Put 10 hot coals under and 14 coals on top of the oven.  Cook for 30 minutes or until the cake is golden brown.  Serve with ice cream.

The most common cake mix and soda pop combination is a yellow cake mix with Sprite.  But I challenge you to get adventuresome.  Use cherry pie filling,  cherry flavored Seven-Up, and a cherry-chip cake mix.  Or (again with cherries) use a chocolate cake mix and the cherry Seven-Up for a ‘Black Forest’ cobbler.  Try strawberry flavored pop and strawberry flavored cake mix.  Spice cake and Dr. Pepper.  Lemon cake mix and Mountain Dew.

If you don’t have a Dutch Oven, I suppose you could make this in a regular oven (even though I never have).  You would probably only need two cans of pie filling for  9 x 13 inch cake pan.  If you make it in the oven, let me know how it turns out.

When I transferred my Grandma Ideas from my previous Internet provider to my current one, I lost some of the content.  Not their fault.  Totally all mine. At that time, I tried to re-post all of the content I had previously put up.

However, I recently went through an old e-mail from one of my favorite college roommates.  She wrote about what she has done for her granddaughters.  I’ve looked back through my old postings and in my skimming, I can’t see one with this idea.  If I have posted it before and you remember it, sigh.  That’s just the way it goes.  I’m just hoping that my new readers since then will enjoy this.

Grandma Dani wrote:  “I moved to a new home that has a large walk-in closet upstairs that we don’t use.  I told my granddaughters that I have a secret garden at my house.  Inside the closet, I have a dresser with dress-ups, dolls, and toys that they love.  I also painted a big tree on the wall and hung Christmas lights that my husband connected to the light switch so they go on with the light.  I put magnetic boards on one of the walls with magnets and pictures of all the little cousins.

“When the girls come to visit, they run upstairs to see “their place” before doing anything else.  They spend a lot of time there playing when they are staying here.  When they tell mom they miss Grandma, they mention their garden.  Sometimes I tell them that a birthday present or special surprise is waiting in their secret place and they always get excited.  One day Savannah called long distance and  was crying and said she was having a terrible day.  I told her I would go into the secret garden and think about her and send her some love.  (She’s only 4, the idea helped her!)  Having their own space at our home has been a great connection! ”

Thanks for sharing, Dani!!

I loved Dani’s idea of painting a tree on the wall and then having the Christmas lights.  I’m thinking of making a ‘Harry Potter’ room in the space under our stairs.  Having Christmas lights there would be great fun.

Dani’s comment about having a magnetic board with magnets and pictures of the cousins got me thinking.  Wouldn’t it be great to have paper dolls with the faces of the cousins?  With some help from the following pages, I’m sure all of you creative grandmothers will be able to make them.

Design Your Own Paper Dolls

Paper Dolls of Stars, Royalty, Famous Americans, etc.

Printable Paper Dolls

‘Period’ Paper Dolls

Our granddaughter, Natalie, is now home from the hospital.  Out of the boring white t-shirt/night gown thingie.  No more newborn-hospital-hat-hair.  I think she’s absolutely adorable.  But, I ‘m just the unprejudiced grandmother!