30 Day Adventure - Days 7-13 With Grammie & Pappy

My parents returned home just before their anniversary dinner party.  You readers are here for the kids, so I won't bore you with party details; but I do love planning a good party. Most of the previous week was devoted to managing the needs of the kids and my grandmother and finishing details for the party. Grandma and Granddaddy blessed all of us by watching the kids for the day/night so I could set up and enjoy the evening without rushing to get back to them.  I had a plan in my head of how it would all go, but God knew I was an idiot for thinking I could do it all by myself. "Coincidentally" Donna offered to spend some time with me during the first week and help set up, even though she could not stay for the party itself. I am not kidding when I say that the party would not have started on time if she had not worked so hard with me. So thank you Donna!

During one of Donna's visits with the kids.

It all ended up coming together nicely.

Quick shot just before Donna left

 

I had them write a list of things they loved about each other and printed them as posters, displayed behind their chairs. The lists were so sweet and all the guests enjoyed learning more about them too.

 

 The next evening, Pappy pulled out the fireworks show for us. Austin and I ended up inside a vehicle for part of the show since they were louder/bigger than previous fireworks. But overall the kids loved "booming" with the fireworks.

Grammie & Pappy took us to Atlanta for a night. We visited the Atlanta Aquarium first.

Showing piranha teeth (piranhas behind her)

Ginormous spider crabs

One can crawl in tunnels under the penguin exhibit and 'pop' up into their habitats in glass domes. Here we are with the penguins.

Some beautiful creatures

  

 

She loved having her face painted. Oh how far we've come.

This boy

Austin's version of penguin walking. Instead of waddling his feet/arms, he waddles his head

Silliness at the hotel

Quite excited about the ice cream sundae (shared by everyone)

We visited the Children's Museum the next day. The shopping area is always a highlight.

Fishing

 

 

 We had to pry the kids away from the sand box.

In the end, we spent the most time at this kinetics exhibit - balls everywhere! Austin just wanted to drop them in here and turn the crank over and over and over.

Amelia had to be pried away from the crane that dropped balls into a bin.

A little painting

We stayed for the 'Science class'. The presenter was really great at explaining magnifying glasses and microscopes at a preschool level.

 

Grammie pulled out different activities for them to do

 

 

She even set each of them up with drums made out of toys.

Our last big activity was a firepit and s'mores. The kids helped Pappy gather kindling. Austin is showing his stick to Grammie through the open window.

 

Showing off their "mittens" (Austin's term!) 

Deciding which big pieces to use

 

 

Success! 

Satisfaction!

30 Day Adventure - Days 1-6 With Great Grammie

During our Christmas visit to Alabama, my parents asked me if I would come stay with my grandmother while they went on a vacation to celebrate their 25th wedding anniversary during the last week of April.  Patrick had a conference in Baltimore (same as last year) in May.  Once we started adding in all the things we wanted to do, we ended up with a 30+ day road trip planned. Beforehand, it seemed crazy and exhausting. Now that we're home, I can say that my kids have become rockstars when it comes to traveling and it was both exhausting and wonderful. All the "training" we did beforehand for sharing rooms and upgrading to a minivan was well worth it.

We made such great time during our two days 16hour+ road trip that I turned to Patrick as we were driving into Birmingham and said "Do you want to be bad?"  He immediately knew what I was talking about and took the exit for Chuy's for lunch. I love it when we are on the same wavelength!

Sharing the love for tex-mex with the next generation.

We arrived at Pappy & Grammie's house (they were already gone!) and found this reading tent for them.

I giggled when I saw the setup for their best friends - Panda, Tiger, & Brown Bear.

I had a to-do list for the anniversary party at the end of the week; Amelia is helping me fill bags of coffee as a party favor. Daddy caught this photo just before he flew home.

Amelia and Great Grammie walking down to check the mail.

A little reading time with Great Grammie

 

The temperature jump in the South was phenomenal so we spent a LOT of time playing outside. Even snack time took place in the wagon.

Neighborhood dogs came for a visit

He grabbed the lawn mower and went at it, even though to my knowledge he's never seen a push mower in action before (our HOA uses riding ones).

 

At a nearby town park. This boy wanted in that creek SO BADLY. Thank goodness there was a fence between him and it.

 

We had a sweet visit with Renee. These kids recognized her as a friend right away. 

I took both of the kids to visit the church where my grandfather attended and served. There is a brick at the entry in memory of him, as he faithfully greeted many for years. We had our snack time and took a few photos. He would have had so much fun with these two.

 This video was taken just after Austin had a rough fall and busted his lip open. We sing a lot when someone gets hurt (well, actually, we just sing a lot around here); so he's been learning the words to quite a few songs. It's even sweeter now because he can sing the last half of most of the lines, but I can't get a good video.

 

DC Girls Weekend

One of our many spring picnics

What happens while I'm changing the bed sheets

Just because he can

Amelia has been in a phase lately of pretending to have a broken bone and then undergoing examinations, x-rays, casts, etc. She spent one morning with her foot stuck in this plastic jar as her "cast" (and it did actually debilitate her walking such that she used a pretend crutch and Austin to walk around). Later on, Austin spent some time giggling while walking around with his foot comfortably inside the jar.

My friend Carolyn ended up having a work trip in D.C. that overlapped a weekend; she asked if I'd like to spend the weekend with her since the hotel would be covered. Patrick had a free train ticket so he sent me on my way! The kids and he had fun watching the trains as they dropped me off and picked me up.

Carolyn and I started the day with no itinerary in mind - but as we were wandering around the Smithsonian Castle, we came across many gorgeous spring flowers. These "frayed" ones were just beautiful!

 

We share a lack of understanding for modern art. So we giggled in some sculpture gardens and art museums.  Potato sack races?

The highlight of the day was a food tour of Capitol Hill. We had amazing Indian and Greek food. I didn't catch as many good photos as I would have liked - I kept remembering to take photos after I had already eaten! But this one was a few seconds short of flaming cheese. Awesome.

 Evening stroll around the landmarks.

  

 

The entire mall area is under construction, as well as most of the landmarks. So I really recommend that you wait a few years to visit if you want good photos.

 

A late night snack. Apparently if I don't have to feed anyone else but myself, I go for homemade pop tarts and sushi.

The next morning we squeezed in brunch at the Founding Farmers restaurant (I'd heard about and always wanted to try),a tour of the Postal Museum (my second visit - I really recommend it!) and a Duck Tour.

 

What a lovely weekend! I read three books over the two train rides and ate our way through DC. Thanks friend for inviting me!

 

While I was gone, Patrick sent me this photo of Amelia reciting the Pledge of Allegiance (she learned at Community Bible Study). The nose picking cracks me up.

 

 

Singing Performance

Amelia has a kid hymnal that she loves to go through song by song and have you sing them to her, Christmas songs and all. It'll take you about an hour. One afternoon she asked me to sing with her, but I had to remind her that I had a headcold and couldn't sing without coughing. She sat down and started going through, singing to me all the songs she knew "by herself". Then she happily performed them for the phone camera. So here is the collection of singing videos for those with patience.

Doxology - We sing this every night at bedtime.

Zaccheus

B-I-B-L-E

God Made Me

Jesus Loves Me

 Away in a Manger