True love

This past weekend was Easter weekend and yet our highlight was our one day road trip to visit my Grandma, my kids' great grandma. This particular time we drove 2 1/2 hours to Treasure City, a large store that sells a bunch of crap but the kids always find their greatest "treasures" there, haha. Then we drove 2 more hours to Itasca State Park so the kids could see the start of the Mississippi River. Wylie even walked across the river. Then got back in the car for the last hour to Fosston, Minnesota. We visited and had dinner with Grandma/Great Grandma for 4 hours, packed back in the car and drove 6 hours home. I might also mention, this is one of their favorite things to do, going to see Great Grandma. They absolutely LOVE it, all of it. Got home at 1am and I had already decided we were hanging low for Easter. Just a day together, the 5 of us.

Monday comes and Kasey gets home from school and said, " Ms. Baumann was asking us what our favorite part of Easter was and I told her I forgot it was  Easter but I got to see my great Grandma who is 100." I spent one moment feeling bad that we didn't make a bigger deal of  Easter (we did the egg hunt/basket etc) but then once that moment passed it melted my heart. There is this undeniable love and bond between the kids and Great Grandma. I can't describe it, I wish I could.   As the saying goes, a picture says a thousand words.





    FROM OUR HELLOS.....

TO OUR GOOD BYES . ..

These are times I will cherish forever and in the eyes of Wylie, Kasey and Tori the time spent with their great Grandma is priceless. This is true love for their great grandma. I love that they LOVE so much.

ps. A quote I will never forget.

Wylie when he was 4 he said, "Mom I don't even see Great Grandma very much but I love her so much."




~ It's my life

Countdowns

What is almost more exciting than the vacation itself? Answer, the countdown to the vacation.  This is true for kids and adults, I think. So as adults and parents you would think we would know by now not to tell the kids anything too exciting too many days in advance.  This seems so easy to do unless one parent is really impatient. That would be me. Over Christmas break this year we decided to take the kids to the ocean this summer. We found a condo right on the beach in Hilton Head, South Carolina.  We booked it for one week, 7 nights all 5 of us together on the ocean. Jacques and I  talked about wrapping a gift or something to surprise the kids about the trip but then decided we better not tell them so early. The trip is over 6 months away at this point. So Christmas came and went and one day over break I broke down and told them. I know, what was I thinking. Seriously, I am so impatient. I need major work on this topic.  There was a valid reason we decided not to tell them so early, the "how many days til the ocean?" started immediately and has continued steadily since. This is completely my fault and if I am annoyed at their "excitement" I have only me to blame.

The kids recently  decided that they wanted to make a countdown chain so they would know everyday how many days were left. I thought, "yes" this is a great idea. Then they would stop asking me everyday and of course from day to day I can't remember how many days it is so I have to get out the calendar and count.  So away they went making the chain, one kid folding, one kid cutting and one kid putting the chain together until they had 83 links. Yes there are 83 days until we start the 22 hour road trip to our 7 nights at Hilton Head!

After the chain was put together, I decided I would add little saying or writings to the inside of the rings so each day when they ripped on off they would have to check if it said anything. They would be things such as: get beach toys this week, buy new swimsuits this week, get beach umbrella, one day has LAST DAY OF SCHOOL etc. Now I get 83 days of no one asking me, " how many days til the ocean?"  . . . Instead I get, "Mom can you count the rings???"  shoot. I should have written the countdown on the rings . . . lesson learned.




*83 days til our family road trip to Hilton Head 

ps. an update on the NCAA March Madness pool we did (see previous post). Wylie won the $10!

~It's my life