Phragments from Phyllis: Fall festivals fill family fun

Cat and Scott are off on a cruise, so Opa and YaYa have become the primary caregivers for Cade and Payton for the week.

Thus far, it has been a whirlwind of activity. Leave it to my daughter to be gone during one of the more frenetic weeks of the year - Halloween.

We spent all day Saturday at festivals of a sort. We started with breakfast with the Brown family, sending Cat and Scott off to their holiday from there. Then, while I attended the funeral of Dr. Curly Watson, Tom took the kids to Cold Creek to buy plants. It was serendipity. They were having a fall festival of their own - complete with inflatables, food and fun.

From there, they met me at Jack-O-Lantern Jubilee. If you did not attend this year, you missed a treat. Cade and Payton enjoyed a full afternoon of games, inflatables and, for the first time this year, carnival rides. I was impressed with both of them. Cade and Payton rode the flying helicopters together the first time. Then, when Payton was finally convinced she was too little to ride in the high-flying swings, she decided she would happily ride the helicopter by herself. Cade enjoyed the swings and then wanted a chance to ride the rocking gondola (my name; I don't know its real name). He enjoyed it, but Tom rode with him as the huge replica of a boat swung in an ever-widening ark. Opa said he was glad it stopped when it did, or he might not have kept his Gary's lunch.

We left Jack-O-Lantern Jubilee in time to eat dinner at Chick-fil-A, where the fun continued.

Then on Sunday, we all went to church, where I discovered that my grandchildren are at the age where we wish they were quieter, but as a fellow church member noted, "No one is concerned about it but you."

We ate lunch nearby, and I was unfortunately reminded what happens to little bodies as they have growth spurts. Payton was already sporting a huge scrape on her chin from a visit with her other grandmother. She was trying to carry a drink and a hamburger up steps when she tripped on one of the steps and fell up, causing a silver dollar sized scrape on her chin. Then Sunday, as we were leaving the restaurant, Payton decided she needed to catch up with Cade. As she ran, her feet tangled somehow, and she fell, face-first on the concrete. Now she has an equal scrape from her eyebrow around to her cheek and ending just short of her nose. Her mother is going to think she was in a war, or something - or that we spent the weekend beating her. Not so.

After a little nap, we headed out again. Our church was holding its Fall Festival, again complete with inflatables, pizza, cotton candy and Halloween candy.

They dressed in their costumes, and I had forgotten how much energy could be expended by such little bodies. Cade, dressed in a padded Spiderman costume from last year (hot, to say the least), literally ran from one obstacle-course/slide inflatable to the other, which was a huge double slide. He was so sweaty, and Tom forgot to bring Cade's shorts, so he really couldn't take off the costume. At least when Payton decided it was time to jump in the bouncy obstacle course, she could shed the Princess costume and jump in her shorts and top. (YaYas think of those things.)

So my grandchildren think the whole week is going to be a whirlwind of festivals - and they may be right. We still have school parties and the real Halloween to go.

Now, I can only hope that Cade will remain scrape free and that Payton will have time to heal before Mommy returns.

Wish us luck. We're going to need it. They don't give children to the young for nothing. At this writing, it's only Monday, and I'm exhausted.