Halloween candy stats by state, plus GRAND Social No. 276 link party for grandparents

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Halloween candy stats by state, plus GRAND Social No. 276 link party for grandparents

We're one week out from trick-or-treat time. Have you stocked up on candy yet?

I recently received an interesting graphic from CandyStore.com on the top treats by state. Scroll over the interactive map for a closer look at the sweet stats.

What's tops in your state? I was surprised to see that M&Ms weren't tops in Colorado, where apparently Milky Ways are king, considering how many pounds of the plain or peanut goodies my husband...

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Sunday morning texts

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Sunday morning texts

There's nothing quite like Sunday morning texts from beloved kids who have grown and flown.

To wit, the following texts I received Sunday morning from my middle daughter, Megan, mama to my desert-dwelling grandsons:

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Matchy matchy!

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Matchy matchy

Jim and I went on a bike ride yesterday afternoon. This is how it started off:

bike ride 

Despite the matchy matchy apparel, we were delighted to get on our bikes and ride — and use our new bike rack (for the car) for the first time. The bike rack we bought for our anniversary last year. The bike rack which sat unopened for an entire year because Jim was hospitalized mere days after that anniversary, and we hadn't hopped on bikes since.

Yesterday the bike rack was finally opened and put to use. It worked perfectly for...

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Psycho spring

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Mother Nature took advantage of April Fool's Day on Saturday to make much of Colorado think spring's arrival was but a joke and we were still in the depths of winter.

I shared on social media Saturday the wintery outlook from various windows around my place. Here, my Instagram share — three brief videos (click each photo a time or two to start the snow; click the arrows on the sides of each pic to go back and forth through the three):

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What moms want from grandparents (guest post)

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Dear readers: Tis the season of giving, and one of the best gifts you can give — all year long — is understanding. Here, my friend and fellow GRANDparent Network member Donne Davis of GaGa Sisterhood offers insight to help us grandparents better understand the mothers of our beloved grandkiddos and what they most want from us in our grand role.

What Moms Want from Grandparents

grandmothers, mother, daughter

As I was writing my book, When Being a Grandma Isn’t So Grand: 4 Keys to L.O.V.E. Your Grandchild’s Parents, I realized that in order to help us grandmas improve our relationship with our grandchild’s parents — especially their mothers — we need to hear what moms have to say about the grandparent relationship.

I surveyed over 50 moms and asked them what they want from the grandparents. Many moms...

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