I LOVE your idea and can't wait to do the same with my grand daughter who is 2 years old now. I worked long hours while raising my three children alone and did a similar thing on much smaller scale with each of my three children - giving them each an hour or so alone with me each week. There things might be more activity than you would wish for but we have always loved the outdoors. My son had few interests and was the most difficult for me to connect with. Things he LOVED: flying a kite, roller skating, miniture golf, video games, rafting down a little fork of a nearby river that took us a number of weeks to build the raft from trashed lumber(bad time of year for you and I don't know where you live in Washington), BBQ breakfast on a tiny grill in the wilderness park (bacon on toast with hot cereal and fruit brought in a thermas was fast and easy then we would go hiking. I know you could take easy snacks without the trouble of the grill but he LOVED to eat hot food in the wide open spaces and it just tasted better there. Things he did not like but your grand son may: bicycle a along wetlands or beach or natural trail, walk thru a botanical garden, plant a tree (my carrotwood and palm trees were always dropping seedlings)in the countryside, scrapbooking, ceramics you mentioned, bought him a disposable camera and spent a day learning basis photography skills and taking pictures of family members, pets, friends, school or whatever he wished for a "My Life in 1974" (or whatever year it was), made a family tree collage from baby pictures of all the family members, built a bird house, bat house, visited the zoo, visited the farm that sells parrots, visited an ostrige farm, visited a llama farm, visited a turkey farm, had him write a story, and draw illistrations that I had bound into a book but now you can buy kits over Amazon.com for books you can have published and dishes they paint, send in and have made permanent. In fact, I have seen kits on Amazon.com to paint their own umberella, table lamp, cup, bird bath, bird feeder, bird house, etc. Also Home Depot or Lowes have kits for bird houses, bird feeders. I don't know if ANY of these ideas can work for you, but good look and I am sure you will get some GREAT suggestions. My girls LOVED to go for "high tea" where a friend of mine who owned a British tea house. (I was a nurse and massage/accupressurist and we would do trades). I do not know that your grandson would enjoy high tea. Also, the children LOVED to go to a really fancy restaurant (we could not afford to eat at) but on special occasions I would order each a Shirley Temple type of drink and we could overlook the harbor or bay to end a wonderful day. Oh, we use to drive to Disneyland and watch the grand finale fireworks in the Disneyland Hotel sipping a juice or milk. I don't know if you have anything in your area that you can get a "piece of".

This is another "hold the phone" project. I had to re-read your comment re the paper liner. At first I thought you'd mosaiced the inside when I saw the diamond shapes. This is simply magnificient. BTW - what kind of gold paint did you use. I'm working on a project that w/call for gold paint. I have several kinds, but am thinking of the gold leaf paint that's oil based. As much as I hate using oil-based paints, it DOES give a nicer effect. Yours looks richer than the acrylic gold. BEAUTIFUL box, and so unique.

Yup, it is a bit sad when they are all grown up. She will be 23 in March, I do not get to see her much, she is a Montessori teacher~~she puts her whole heart into those kids, I am so proud of her. She called me a few months ago and told me she was starting to feel spiritual, like I was finally rubbing off on her;) I love it!

Tom, I have used that tool while gardening. It does make it more enjoyable. The problem is my garden ends up looking very disorganized with crooked rows and such.