Have you gone bungee jumping? Could you fly a rescue helicopter? Have you given a 2-ton elephant a bath?

No?

Well, maybe your grandchild (who idolizes you) thinks you can do these spectacular things!  Just maybe. . .

Rick Dilz has created a series of delightful little books that puts grandma in some pretty wild situations.  In My Grandma Could Do Anything, a grandchild is saying that her grandma doesn’t drive tractors, bungee jump, race cars, or fly jets — but she could.  (Hey! Wait a minute!  I’ve driven a tractor.  Not that hard at all . . .)  At the end, the grandchild says that she is happy with the one thing that grandma does best: love me. (Awwww, how sweet!)

I can imagine how fun it would be to snuggle with a grandchild to read one of these books, laugh over the crazy things that grandma COULD do, and end with hugs and kisses when you read the ending.  (I say imagine because when I tried reading one book to my grandson, he just didn’t want to sit still . . .)

In My Grandma Could Do Anything in the Rocky Mountains, the grandchild imagines that grandma could fly a rescue helicopter, ski black diamonds, hang glide, water ski, or sing around the campfire.  (Hey!  Wait a  minute!  I’ve water skied, skied black diamonds, and sang around the campfire.  While I haven’t done any hang gliding, I have gone sky diving.  Does that count?)

In My Grandma Could Do Anything in Hawaii the grandchild says that grandma could lead a hula show, surf a 20-foot wave, or windsurf with whales.   (Mmmmm . . . haven’t done anything like that.  But I’ve been there three times!)

In My Grandma Could Do Anything at the Zoo, the grandchild imagines grandma giving a 2-ton elephant a bath, swinging with monkeys, herding zebras, and feeding a 15-foot high giraffe.

There are pictures of critters that grandchildren can find throughout the books and fun animal facts which add an element of learning to reading the books. They are the perfect size to tuck into grandma’s purse when visiting grandchildren — or sending in the mail to those far away grandchildren.

You can check out these books here on Ric’s site. Thanks, Ric, for sharing your books with me!

(I was poking around his site and saw some of the sayings he offers on little onesies.  I love the one:  Party. 3:00 a.m. My crib.  What a hoot!  You might want to spend time browsing what he offers in addition to his books.)

Let’s take this idea and personalize it.  Why not have your grandchildren create their own book about themselves?  You could simply use a small spiral notebook — or be extravagant and get a nice bound book with blank pages. You could gather up crayons, markers, or colored pencils so your grandchild could write the book and then illustrate it.

Title your book Spencer Could Do Anything (or whatever your grandchild’s name is).  Then the two of you could come up with wacky things that he could do (but doesn’t) and end with something like ‘I’m so happy with the one thing he does best — love Grandma.’

Another twist on this would be for you to create your own variation for each of your grandchildren.  Then, when you visit them,  you could read the book to them and gift it to them.  Of course giving lots of snuggles and kisses along the way.

Happy reading and book making!

Do you have teen-aged grandchildren?  Do you (or they) have a video camcorder? Good.  We’re on to a great idea here.

My son introduced me to Mystery Guitarman and his videos on YouTube.  What a hoot!!!  He creates amazingly fun videos, has a fun personality, is clever and witty, and is very musical to boot.  (He’s rather dashingly handsome, too!)  Watch his root beer Mozart video to see what he does.

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I am so enamored with Mystery Guitarman that I wanted to have three more of his videos here on my site.  Alas and alack, I haven’t yet conquered the problem of getting more than one video on my site.  (I’ve put that on my to-do list.  It is number 6,591.  Do you think I’ll get around to conquering this problem soon?)

Here is Mystery Guitarman’s Kazoo video. (By the way, do any of you recognize the song in this video?  Can you name the ‘popular’ name for the song?  Can you name the true title — which happens to be a classical song overture?)

Does your grandchild use Photoshop?  Then Mystery Guitarman’s Photoshop Kazoo would delight your grandchild.  Do you or your grandchild have an iPhone?  Then watch Mystery Guitarman’s iMouth.

(NOTE:  Nothing productive was accomplished while watching Mystery Guitarman’s videos.  But it sure brought joy to my soul  . . . .)

Now that you’ve watched several of Mystery Guitarman’s videos, here are some ideas for you.

First, the easiest would be to simply send links to these videos to your grandchildren.  (What a great thing you can do for your distant-and-far-away grandchildren.)  Tell them which was your favorite and ask them to let you know which one they liked best.  Maybe you could search on YouTube to find more of his fun videos if you don’t happen to like these.  (And if you don’t, methinks there’s something wrong with thee!)

Second, you can invite your grandchildren over to watch these videos at your house.  If you have a big screen TV (like I do) and if you can connect your computer to your TV (like I can), then watching these videos on a big screen TV would be hilarious.  Eat popcorn.  Sip soda pop.  Hang out with your grandchildren.  Cool.

Third, you can make your own music video.  Maybe not as elaborate as the ones that Mystery Guitarman make.  After you make the video, burn it to a DVD so that your grandchildren can  have a copy and you can have a copy.  You might want to send a copy out to other family members so they can enjoy it.  Maybe you can show it at a family reunion that you might be having during the summer. (Maybe making a video could be an activity that you do at your reunion.)

Fourth, you can ask your different grandchildren to make a video on their own.  Then, have a family get together and show the videos.  Maybe give prizes such as the funniest one, best music, best acting, most original.  You get the idea.

Are you thinking that your technical skill isn’t quite up to snuff for these activities?  Not to worry.  You can just be the organizer/producer behind the idea while your grandchildren can be the director/tech guru.  Just take this idea and mold it to fit your skills and situation.

Now.  Pardon me.  I need to waste some more time preview more of Mystery Guitarman’s videos.

My daughter does not care to eat eggs.  Not at all.  She’d scrunch up her nose, clamp her mouth shut, vehemently shake her head, and stomp her foot.  “No, no, no!” she insists.  (And that was just last week . . .)

However, I do think that she would be willing to eat THESE fried eggs.  I know I certainly would.  And, I predict that any grandchild (who has teeth and eats ‘adult’ food) would snarf these eggs down faster than fast.  (For right now, only two of my grandchildren fit into the I-can-eat-this-food category . . .)

I am so grateful for Grandma Lisa (of the famed Grandma Briefs blog) for highlighting Grandma Judy.  The egg idea is on Grandma Judy’s site.  Being a very gracious person, Grandma Judy has given me permission to use her photo of her eggs and link to her recipe for these eggs.  Thank you, Grandma Judy!  (My daughter wishes that I had learned to make these eggs LONG ago . . .)

Now.  About making these fried eggs.  Wouldn’t this be a great activity to do with your grandchildren?  I think grandchildren of all ages (yes, even teen-aged ones) would have a hoot making (and eating) these eggs!  They are so totally easy to make — and so totally delicious.  Like, totally.  Easy enough that Ms. Maker-of-Pathetic Cake Pops (me) could even make them.  Probably. Your grandchildren will be begging for more so make sure you have plenty of ingredients to make a whole slew of these eggs.

Basically, you get some pretzels, drop a dab of melted white chocolate over the pretzels (that are your sausage links), and press one or two yellow M & Ms in the chocolate before it cools.  Here’s Grandma Judy’s recipe and directions. (You’ll need to scroll down a wee bit to get to the egg recipe.)

Grandma Judy’s has a couple other recipes that sound downright delicious.  Like the candy cookies.  These cookies would be another easy recipe that your budding chefs (aka your grandchildren) could make.

Let’s hear it for fried eggs — hip, hip, hooray! (And you, dear daughter, can especially cheer for these eggs!)

And, hip, hip, hooray for Grandma Judy!

It never ceases to amaze me just many creative people there are in the world.  Like my nephew’s wife, Stephanie.  She did a little activity for my daughter-in-law, Lisa, that I thought was spectacularly fun.  So I wanted to share it here (of course) so that you, my Dear Readers, could learn about it and adapt it for an activity to do with your grandchildren.

Here is what Lisa found recently when she came home from doing a wee bit o’ shopping. (Make sure you click on the pictures to see a larger version.)

	This is what she found on her front porch.  The sign on the string said, “Follow me.” So she did.  Around to the side of the house and into the back yard.
	She followed it around and around the backyard, from bush, to nook, to cranny.
	Occasionally, the string held a special treasure.

This activity made her day!

So take this idea, twist it on it’s head, and turn it into something that you can do with grandchildren. What do you get? Why, a party on a string, that’s what!

If you have only two or three grandchildren, you could have them do this activity together as a group.  If you have  more, divide them into teams.  You’ll have to make different sets of treasures on a string so that there is one set to follow for each group.  You might want to make sure that you have different colors of string so that it will make it easier for the groups to follow their own string.

It might be wise to do this in a big area if you have very many groups.  That way, the yarn from the different groups wouldn’t be overlapping very much.  (If the string did over lap, it might become a frustrating tangled knot for the grandkids — and grandmother!)

This could be a just-because activity.  Or, it could be a fun birthday party for a grandchild.  Or, you could adapt it for holidays by having holiday themed special treasures (i.e. patriotic things for the 4th of July, Halloween things for a Halloween party, etc.).  You could also do this inside the house.  Wherever it’s held, it will be fun for grandchildren.

To top it off, you’ve just GOT to have some treat to eat.  (Of course.  Food = grandma.  At least that was the math that I learned in school . . .)  You might want to have S’more cookies, or Rollo Candy Treats, or Peanut Butter Cup Bars.

Or, you can stay tuned for my next posting to learn how to make a treat that is absolutely a scream!  (I’m just dying — I can’t wait to make them!!!)

Make it a great day!