Cyber friend and very talented, creative, Susanna Hill, the author of Punxsutawney Phyllis, invited readers of her blog to celebrate Groundhog’s Day (click to see other adventures) with her. So I got a copy of ‘Phyllis’ from the library, a
camera and my grandgirls and here follows our adventure. . .
After church, lunch and naptimes I read Susanna’s story to my grandgirls. They of course loved the story and we especially paid attention to the ‘signs of Spring’ that Phyllis spotted…chicadees singing, a zephyr wind, water dripping (but no bubbling brook for us). We have a real groundhog that lives under our deck. So we were going to venture outside to see if we might spy her.
Looking for Woody & Phyllis with ‘nonoculars’
Now, that morning the family was running late to church, so the girls didn’t put on boots, or mittens. (They got carried to the warm car, then right into church and later over to our house.) By the time naps were over, it had snowed and was only 15 degrees outside. Bad Grandma that I am I said, “oh, it’s okay we’ll only be outside for a few minutes and just on the driveway…”
Before leaving the house I got a pair of binoculars…I thought they would look good in the pictures. But’ Grandgirl #2 (the 2 year old) said, “I want nonoculars too,” and grandgirl #1 (the 4 yr old) didn’t want to give them up. Finally #2 was content with a viewmaster to look through (she thought they were ‘nonoculars’).
We went outside and stood on the driveway….so far so good….just a dusting of snow….we took a few
Still looking for our Waterford Woody
Is it Woody or Phyllis?
pics….then I turned my back to put Phyllis down for a picture next to a shrub 2 feet away and #2 grandgirl decided to try and follow, fell down in the snow and started shrieking like she’d fallen in scalding water. I picked her up and tried to soothe her saying, “it’s just snow…it’s okay….” Nuh-uh. Still screaming. So I took her in the house to her aunt. So far we’d been outside a total of about 90 seconds. Granddaughter #1 stayed with me to take a couple more pictures, but then it really started snowing hard.
Nonoculars confirm it is PHYLLIS
We went inside and decided this:
Cuddled under a warm quilt with Phyllis
It was such a nasty day that Phyllis would have the sense to stay inside, bundled up in bed under Grandma’s nice warm quilt. So that’s what we did and took some pictures. (How long ago did you try to take pictures of two wiggly children, a book and a paper cutout and get all of them in the pic and none of them blurry or obscured?….this is one tired grandma.)
Oh – and did Phyllis see her shadow? Will we have an early Spring or more Winter? It’s Michigan. Last week we had 56 degrees on Tuesday and by Thursday it was below zero, and schools were closed because of snow and ice. So, Spring may come early but we’ll also be watching out for falling icicles.
Anyway – that’s our adventure with Phyllis. Oh and if you’d like a guide to pronouncing Phyllis’ name, click here, my grandgirls will tell you in a very short video.
Stay warm and keep looking for Spring!
Laura (Grandmamiller)
Read Full Post »
