A Visit from the Grandparents

The last two weekends in January brought us visitors from home...the grandparents! First to come were Grammy (Kim) and Grandpa Brett, bearing gifts of a chocolate covered strawberry bouquet from Edible Arrangements. This store is super cute, and Grammy has promised a princess themed edible bouquet on the next visit. If the strawberries brought this big smile from Olivia, what will the princess bouquet bring???


Joe, Grammy, and Olivia decorating our heart shaped cake "suckers" (cake on a stick). The sucker itself was a horrible flop - they fell right off of the stick immediately, but the cake was still yummy and decorating was fun.

Grammy spends time with Ethan.

Bedtime always leads to many stories.

No, this is not another bedtime photo, but try telling Grammy and Grandpa Brett that!

Grammy and Grandpa Brett spent several hours with Olivia at the Children's Museum so Joe, Ethan, and I could get some serious clothes shopping done. Here, Olivia and Grandpa Brett have a musical duet together. I'm sure it was lovely.

Olivia and Grandpa Brett planting a garden together.

After Grammy and Grandpa Brett's weekend, it was time for a visit from Grandma and Grandpa. Of course, that always means more cooking lessons for Olivia from Grandma. This time was learning to make cinnamon twists. They have made pies, cookies, pretzels, and bread together. We are hoping that Olivia carries on our love of baking, and thus far she seems to really enjoy working in the kitchen.

Bathtime fun with Grandpa and Ethan.

Grandpa teaching Olivia the basics of baseball. You just never know what these two will do when they get together. This time they invented a game called "bonk the belly". Basically Olivia would "bonk" her head into Grandpa's belly and he would fall to the ground. Over, and over, and over...

More Grandpa and Ethan time. Again, you just never know what games Grandpa will come up with.

Grandma and Ethan. Not only did this trip bring alone time with the grandparents and the grandkids, but it also brought alone time for Joe and I. We actually went out to eat at a very nice restaurant ALONE for the first time in NINE months while the grandparents babysat. Plus, we actually didn't talk about the kids, we talked about the second most common topic these days...househunting.

More sleeping time. It appeared to be a theme with all of the grandparents. Do the kids wear them out?

The following are just some random shots of the kids. Olivia, Ethan, and Joe pretending to be stuffed animals.

I'm proud of my healthy eating kids. How many people have a kid that LOVES hummus and any veggie to dip into it (except tomatoes - Olivia's one aversion), will eat fruit like candy, and requests food like guacamole, edamame, lima beans, and salad (salad can actually be used as a bribe in our house). Her healthy eating helps Joe and I to keep eating healthy as well.

Even Ethan enjoys his broccoli.

This is how Ethan helps me in the kitchen. He destroys my tupperware cabinet while I fix a meal. I guess that is a fair deal.