John and his brother Jim

Recently Jim came for a few days, and he and John participated in the annual Tellico Village "member-guest" golf tournament. No trophies or cash, but some good quality brother-to-brother time.

Camping out on the back deck

While Sheela was here, she and I tried a different way of sleeping outside. She started out in one of the swinging chairs, then gave it up and transferred to the larger love-seat size swing. I luxuriated in the steamer chair. Well, at first. Then she talked me out of that and she slept there the rest of the night, while I wiggled around in the much-too-short-for-me love seat one.

The next morning our next door neighbor, having spotted us from her window, walked over with coffee, orange juice, and couple of power bars for our breakfast! She even included napkins and plastic silverware.

Ahh, what a great place to live!

All dressed up

One of the special things we do when the grands visit is dress up and go to church. The reward is lunch afterward outside on the deck at Tanasi.

Sunil loves wearing his "president's suit" and it was the perfect excuse to wear it. You can't see the shoes, but he actually has black leather dress ones, too.

Sheela, also, is wearing pretty shoes. It was a fun day, all in all.

And, as a bonus for us, many of our fellow church-goers complimented us on the children, both on their deportment (isn't that a good grandmother-type word?) and their dress. One comment summed it up: "It's nice to see the kids dressed for church; not dressed for the beach with church as an incidental stop on the way."

I'm allowed to brag ... I'm a grandma!

On the high seas...

Or, maybe not exactly. But Lake Tellico, anyway!
We spent a lovely afternoon on our friends' boat, and they were nice enough to let Sheela and Sunil take turns as captain.

Robin

We continue to enjoy the birds as they continue to enjoy the birdbath.

The robin was a special treat; they mostly seem to pass through our area on their way north / south, and most don't remain to sing for us.

Catch up photos from December in Dallas

Sunil loved helping Grammylyn cook her "famous" cinnamon bread french toast.

Sheeela keeps growing taller and taller. The kids are measured on their birthdays and "half birthdays". Sid made the door-mounted giraffe for her when she was still al baby, and all her growth marks have been added to it ever since.