Grandma and Grandpa's Visit

Grandma and Grandpa came all the way from Alaska to visit us for a few days. The last time they had been to our house Rose had just been born, and the last time we saw them was 3 years ago when Ginger was just a few months old. The kids were really excited to see Grandpa and Grandma!

Grandma helped the girls make some rolls.

Or make mounds of flour. That's what Ginger wanted to do.
I told Darin that when Dad's parents come to town they make him do his chores!

Ken took off from his day job, but worked very hard on a bunch of projects around the house with his Dad. They trimmed up our trees to look pretty, cleared out all the old trampoline parts, put-up a new trampoline, replaced the dishwasher, and in general cleared out a bunch of stuff like our old Water Heater that Ken and my Dad had just replaced. It was so nice for Ken to have help and to actually have time at home to do them. It's been about 18 months since he has even had time to do anything other then emergency work around the house.

I was originally supposed to host our April Fool's Playgroup and had been looking for fun ideas for the kids. I found two really cute recipes I am going to have to try next year. One is to make meatloaf and mashed potatoes look like cupcakes. The other is to make cake and rice crispy cereal look like chicken nuggets. I didn't end up hosting it because we were surprised by Grandma's visit and wanted to cancel as many committments as possible.

But, we did do a fun game that I found for April Fool's that I thought the boys would love! We actually did it the day before April Fool's because (you'll see later) we were booked on the original holiday.

Basically you write down every utensil, plate, bowl, cup, and food you are eating on seperate little sheets of paper. Fold them up and put them into a cup to draw randomly. Here are the rules: Each round every person draws 3 slips of paper (we had 15 total). They have to use/eat whatever they drew. If they don't then they lose it for the entire meal.

Here's a picture of what I drew first... Notice I didn't draw a plate or any utensils, so I had to eat it with my fingers off of the table. Poor Grandma drew water, but now cup. My boys were more then eager to help her take a drink!

Grandma was a really good sport.
Grandpa wasn't taking any chances, he poured his own water. A very safe bet in my opinion:-)

Do you see Rose's little sad face. The first part of the game the girls were not very happy at all. They thought it was so unfair that everyone else was drawing the foods they wanted like the watermelon.

And when Rose drew it she was so Happy!
The girls were also thrilled to drink water without a cup. They already had gotten their cups in previous rounds but they LOVED Ken pouring it into their mouths!


The boys loved the game too, especially being able to brag about drawing a plate during the first round. It took me until the very last round to get my plate. It was so unfair.
The next day we worked on more projects around the house. Then we took everyone but Darin to Mayfield Park and saw the Peacocks. Darin couldn't miss his afternoon classes because he had a couple of tests.

Grandpa with the little girls. Rose especially took a liking to Grandpa and always wanted to sit by him or have him hold her.

Ginger chasing the peacocks. The kids were around the corner of the house on the property, we couldn't see them but we saw a bunch of peacocks running away so it made our children really easy to find.
There are a number of ponds that the kids liked looking into to find little critters. The liked this baby turtle and some fishes.

We finished up at the park just in time to pick up Darin from school and to set-up for the evenings activity. We had Nathan's Webelos Den over to work on their Outdoorsman Badge. Ken taught them how to chop wood, whip and fuse rope, start a fire, and cook their dinner. It was a busy, busy night.


The weekend Grandma and Grandpa were here was Conference Weekend. Of course before we got to actually watching conference we had 4 soccer games and concession stand duty. Grandma went everywhere Ken did, she even helped man the Concession Stands. Grandpa stayed home and rested.

I think the rest of us wished we had rester too since 5 minutes into watching conference that day we all did this...

We woke Darin up so he could go out to dinner with his Dad and Grandpa. This was Darin's first time attending the Priesthood Session. Ken made sure to make it a big deal; dinner before and ice cream after. That boys is spoiled!
We did our normal tradition for Priesthood Session and dyed Easter Eggs! I was a little sad Darin wasn't there it felt quieter and sadder without him. The other kids had fun though. They even did glitter eggs and decorated them with faces and fuzzy hair.








After the Sunday morning session Grandma and Grandpa left for their long drive back. It was nice to see them!

This is the only picture I have of Sunday Conference. It was such a crazy weekend. I think Ken and Ginger are cute together!