Maddie's Decorating

While I was talking with Alysa this afternoon, she was waiting for Maddie to finish her creation out in their backyard. Maddie likes to decorate things. It reminded me of when she, Alysa and Jackson were here during spring break.

We were planning supper and Maddie decided she wanted to set the table and decorate it for us - as a surprise. That's when Alysa and i should have clued in, but we didn't. She wanted to use my good plates, so I got them out of the buffet and put them on the table, but didn't set one for Jackson (he is only 2 and isn't ready for good china yet).

We were told we could wait in the basement, so off we went with Jackson. I think I asked Alysa if we should be doing that, but she didn't seem too concerned.

Finally we went upstairs. When we looked at the table we were quite surpised. The first thing I noticed were my bone china teacups from the buffet (that are 40 years old). She had gotten them out of the buffet. Then next to them at each place (not Jackson's thankfully) were my good white mugs (also out of the buffet-it has glass doors, so you can see all these things in it). As I looked at the mugs, they were filled to the brim literally with water. Not another drop could you have gotten in them. I noticed Maddie adding water to the last mug(she had gotten the water from the bathroom). I know bathroom water is alright, but the thought of drinking it at supper was not too appealing.

There is a scarf that I keep on the buffet, and I set my good teapot on it, that she put on Jack's chair and another crocheted scarf she put on my chair. I had baked some chocolate chip cookies and had them in a large rubbermaid container and she had set that on the table and had put 2 and 1/2 cookies on each person's plate. Jackson immediately got up on his chair and ate his cookies- before we could stop him. She had also set a bowl of artificial fruit on the table. I'm sure there were several other things that she had done, but I can't remember them.

She was so sweet and so proud of herself and had been so careful with everything. We did praise her for the nice job she had done. The only other thing I could bring myself to say to her was to ask her if I could take a little water out of the teacup and mug so we wouldn't spill it when we lifted it to drink from them.

I just talked with Alysa and she told me what Maddie did outside. She had spread out a blanket with pillows on it, so they could lay on their backs and watch the sky and clouds. On the edge of the blanket she had put rocks so the blanket would stay down. She also had brought out some water for them (filled to the brim) to drink. Then there were three chairs together that they could used for a table for the craft that they would be doing. What a wonderful little creative 5 year old granddaughter I have. She lights up our lives and brings us great joy.