Barry and I love to read to and with our 9 grandchildren.

We love to make up stories and listen to them as they weave their own masterpieces right before our eyes and ears.

We love to draw them into our kitchen to whip up little and sometimes even big masterpieces… from our Couto family Pink Pig Cookies on New Year’s Day to our Thanksgiving Feast!  From Sunday morning Pop-up Pancakes to Easter Brunch. Barry and I love little hands and voices in on all the fixin’s!

We love little fingers in our gardens.  And I love telling them of the secrets and language of flowers.

And then there’s the other thing.  The thing that lights up a grandchild’s eyes on a misty Sunday morning…

… the words LET’S PLAY BALL!

Barry and I had 8-year old Andrew overnight on Saturday and the rain didn’t look too promising for any Sunday fun. 

What?!  We’re grandparents. We can do anything we want!

So our morning began with a little trip to our nearby Benny’s for a baseball glove for me.  I felt like a little kid, trying on all the gloves.  I was giddy with excitement as I chose a pink & black Wilson beauty.  I told Andrew that when I was a kid (oh, boy… or girl, as the case may be!), I never imagined having a pink baseball glove!  Actually, I only remember using my older brother’s cast-off gloves. 

(Anyway, I wasn’t even sure that Andrew even knew that I knew what a baseball glove did!  Hmmmmm.)

Then off to our local baseball field.  It was like a Field of Dreams.  Silent. Ethereal.  Sacred.  I felt like we were the only 3 people in the universe as we approached the green grass and soft brown dirt. Our voices echoed through the mist of the morning as Barry took the bat and baseballs and Andrew and I headed to the outfield.

Soon the unmistakable sound of ball on bat cracked through the mist and Andrew and I were running, running, running.  Running in.  Running out.  Shouting, shouting, shouting.  MINE!  YOURS!  AWESOME CATCH!  GREAT TRY!

Andrew and I were teammates.  The greatest feeling in the entire world is to be a teammate with your grandchild… in the pages of a book, in the kitchen, in the garden… and this time on a baseball field... running, shouting, laughing.

Then it was Andrew’s turn to hit and Barry and I were running.  Shouting.  Laughing.

Andrew wanted to pitch.

And Andrew discovered that Grandma does know what to do with a baseball glove… an awesome pink & black one, by the way.  Heck, Grandma realized that she still knows what to do with a baseball glove!

This morning of Generation Fitness with our beautiful grandson Andrew was one of the most special mornings ever… and the only reason we left that Field of Dreams is because the sky opened and the thunder chased us away.

But we’ll be back.  That, I promise.