Nana & Papa Terry visit

We had so much fun with Nana and Papa Terry over the last few days. I'll just have to go over the highlights and smother you in pictures and videos. They came bearing gifts. Who would have known that a book on the Hokey Pokey would become such entertainment, night after night and all through the day. Kudos to Papa Terry who stopped whatever he was doing to join with Ivan and Dominique in dancing and demonstrating the correct actions to the song (and with such gusto!) There is something obviously magical about grandparents. When I tried to do this song with the kids some weeks ago, they didn't want to do it, but add two grandparents to the mix and it's a winner.



Since Nana's birthday is Tuesday (HAPPY BIRTHDAY NANA!!!) and they won't be here for Ivan's and mine, we got a cake we decorated together and Nana surprised the kids with helium filled balloons. You would have thought she'd hung the moon. It was cute hearing Dominique yell "balloons" over and over, which came out more like "ba-oon". She added that word to her vocabulary right quick.

Nana also got the kids some pumpkins. Since I like to buy pumpkins in the fall to use in cooking and baking, we didn't cut into them yet. We painted them for now and stuck paper faces on them. We'll cut them right before halloween and light them up, then I'll be boiling pumpkin and freezing it and roasting the seeds. Do you ever use the pumpkin- for food?



Nana seems to have a sixth sense about getting stuff for the kids. She will foresee what they need or what they are into. The night before they came, I asked Ivan what he wanted to be for Halloween and what he wanted as a theme for his birthday. He chose Thomas the train (from my list of easy-to-make costumes) and wants a spider themed birthday (weird, I know, but will work being so close to halloween- he has a book about a spider who has a surprise birthday party). Well Nana brought him Thomas the train slippers and a spider web. How crazy is that?

Of course anything makes a great kid gift- balloons anyone?



The greatest gift of course is being able to spend time together. Ivan keeps asking where Nana and Papa are (too far- even though they are our closest relatives). Again, it was like a vacation for me and I got one big project nearly done. With help here, it's easier to do big things. They were all napping (the first day Ivan napped all wrapped up in Papa Terry's arm, together in the recliner, the next day, he took a nap with Nana). Both kids fell asleep one day. This happens occasionally, more often if they have performed the hokey pokey hours on end and were so high on the excitement with the grandparent's arrival that they didn't nap at all the day before. When I'm on my own, I never know if I should start something big in case one of them wakes up soon. But with reinforcements, I tackled the costume knowing that a grand could keep a child entertained while I finished up or got to a stopping point. So thomas is ready to go apart from some paint.

There was a quote that asked where grandchildren got all their energy from and it said they take it from their grandparents. I hope that the visit didn't wear out these grands, but left them feeling re-energized. I know in many ways it was like a vacation to me- having others read to them, play with them, get cups, wipe faces, create giggles... is such a treat.