If you are a grandparent, grandfriend, parent of even a child who wants to share your relationship with us, please tell us how you would like to give input. We will continually evolve our site to meet you goals. Please join in the conversation – it takes a village to raise and child and it takes a village to appreciate it too!
We had our four grandchildren for the weekend and were going out for dinner. Naturally, my teenage granddaughter and I wanted to go to a restaurant for hamburgers, the b
oys wanted pizza and the 6 year old wanted dessert. My husband, ever practical, convinced us all to go to the food court at Costco but to make it fun, we called it “Chez Costco” the grandest restaurant in town.
We got a huge 18″ pizza for $9.95
some hot dogs and other things so that dinner for 6 was less than $30. My 
grandson was chowing down and having a grand ole time when suddenly he chimes in and declares “Costco must be the lowest margin business out there “. “What”, I ask, “do you mean by margin?” Where upon he proceeds to tell me about margin being the difference in what something costs and how much you sell it for and that the pizza food cost was probably $9.25 and the soft drinks were probably only a 5% margin etc. 
He actually calculated the cost and margin of every item we purchased and determined how much they made on us for the evening. He was probably spot on. I have never known him to be off by much.
We had a good time, saved a little money and when I am ready to open a new business, I know who I want to be by my side….
Friends of mine, Sandy and Bob, made a trip to Denver recently to see their 13-year old granddaughter perform in a school play. After one performance of the play, there was a reception of sorts in the gym with hundreds of people present. Not knowing anybody other than their immediate family and not wanting to get in the way of the activities, Bob and Sandy found a spot to stand in the far corner of the room and just watched the action. Later that evening after they were home, their granddaughter commented to them: “The next time you are at my school, please don’t just stand there looking creepy.”
Sandy has no idea what she did to look “creepy”, and certainly has no idea how to look and be different next time so as to be more acceptable to her granddaughter.
Any ideas?
One of my favorite times of the year is Thanksgiving because it’s all about warmth, food, family and
of course, giving thanks. Every year my grandchildren’s school holds an open house and puts on a great program just for grandparents. It is called Grandparent’s Chocolate…which probably came from someone identifying their two best things in the world.
The children prepare skits, songs, poems and pictures to entertain us and then we get to visit their classroom to see what they are learning and where they sit and meet their teachers. It is great to get to share that with them and helps us become more involved in their lives. We also get our photo with each one of the kids (we have 4 at this school so we have a lot of photos).
In the third grade the children show us their Flat Katie and tell us about her gre
at adventures at the Cubs game, Seattle trip and going to the American girl store.
In first grade the children get to draw a picture of what they will be when they grow up. There are firemen and policemen, there are Doctors and Nurses, there are astronauts and even Supermen but I think Michael has the best idea ever –
When Michael grows up, he wants to be a doughnut maker. Because he says it makes it more likely that he can have doughnuts for breakfast which is, after all, the real reason one grows up anyway. And doughnuts were easier to draw than rocket ships 🙂
Grandfriend is a person who builds a lasting relationship with a child. On the order of a grandparent — not a maternal or paternal relationship — but a supporting, loving, fun relationship. A Grandfriend can be a relative, or not.