Create a Memory: “Oh, the Places You’ll Go!”
Older adults trapped in a vehicle with 3-4 of their grand-children for hours on end. Who would do that? Only Grandparents hiding secrets. Grandparents on a mystery trip with kindergarten and elementary schoolers in tow. Here’s one way to do it adapted from a suggestion by my good friend Carolyn P.
1. Insert Mystery Trip Card on your windshield.
2. Insert children, belted in and believing anywhere is possible!
Mystery Trip # 1 Museum of Science and History (MOSH, downtown Jacksonville) Billed as a place where Wonders Never Cease.
Three of our four grandchildren are boys, and they have all followed Bob-the-Builder / Thomas-the-Train line of interest. Now it’s dinosaurs! This trip will feed their fetish.
Always end with FOOD! With no fast food place in sight, we make a hot dog—cookie—juice box picnic out of it this time.
Mystery Trip # 2 Polar Express: Any theatre, even a DVD at home will do. But the iMAX 80 foot-wide-screen bumps it up a notch. Besides, you get into a van and GO somewhere special. The woofer and tweeter sounds make the story come alive!
Mystery Trip # 3 Let’s Go Science! With Professor Smart and Dr. Knowitall
Patrick and Curtis went berserk-y trying to touch the huge floating balloon, a before-the-show stunt. We ended with WhataBurger! As you can see, eating is serious business!
Mystery Trip # 4 Blueberry Pickin’ Good country fun @ $3.00 a pound!
Jenna says, “This is good, family fun!” And that was before the gang in the back-seat made up a silly song of 4-5 stanzas about picking blueberries to the tune of “Here We Go Round the Mulberry Bush.”
The last stanza included barfing although that never really happened!
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I loved this one even more than usual because it\’s news I can use. My grandchildren are 26 months and 7 months old right now, a little young for mystery trips. But they will be ready to roll soon. What I enjoyed was thinking of how much of your own childhood, as described in previous posts here, has been transmuted into your position as a 21st-century grandma. I\’ve written a little poem called \”The Plain Girl\” and dedicated it to my 7-month old granddaughter who was recently dedicated in Brooklyn\’s first UU Church.
Thanks to your comment, I was prompted to remember something else: The year they were born, I typed a letter to each of my grandchildren (two 9-year-olds, a 7 and a 5 year old) and mailed it to their parents, so there would be a post-mark. It included something of my impressions of them as infants and my wishes and dreams for each one. However, I didn\’t specify when these letters would be opened; I need to put that on my radar too!
Your poem is a great memento for your granddaughter. I wonder if it will appear on a post one of these days! You know, of course, baby dedications are also parent and grandparent dedications too.
Marian, it was fun to go back and read this! You have done a great job of enjoying wonder, joy, and adventure with your nearly-grown grandchildren. I had forgotten about the letter idea. That’s brilliant, too.
What a beautiful picture of that little girl peeking out from the blueberry bush!
Love your idea of Mystery Trips. They all sound like loads of fun. Those blueberries look amazing. Jenna does, too.
I did make a video of their silly, make-up song and thought I posted it with the piece, but I guess I was mistaken. Well, there is always next week. Thanks for taking a peek, Judy.
I enjoyed following the link to this \”my pre-knowing-Marian\” post. Way cool!
How sweet of you to back-track with me. We tried to repeat the blueberry picking trip this morning to no avail. Last week the berries weren\’t ripe, and today the farm was flooded after a late-night storm, a real gully washer. So we will try again early next week, hoping \”Three\’s a charm!\” Thanks for clicking back.