Thursday we drove out to Rochester to help my in-laws move out of their home and see them off as they start their move out to the midwest. Moving always takes longer than you think, especially when you are really conscientious about making sure the house is perfectly clean for the people you are selling your house to. I told my MIL that I wanted to buy a house from her. haha! My MIL's sister (Matthew's aunt) had been there almost a week already helping my MIL get the house packed up and cleaned. The plan was for them to have the truck pretty much packed up on Wednesday and then on Thursday it would be last minute packing and cleaning up and then they'd take off. Well, as usual, things took longer than expected and unfortunately they left 5 hours later than they had hoped for. MIL was very grateful for our help, but really we didn't do a whole lot... we didn't even get there until the last day of their moving project. Haha!
Here we all are, finally done!! Truck's all loaded and the house is all clean!
After the truck was loaded we spent a little time just talking and playing with the kiddos before we took off, since we won't be seeing them as often anymore.
Here's a final pic of Grandma and Grandpa in front of their old house.
After this, we went to visit some of our friends from college- a few hours later than we planned. Though our time with them was significantly shortened, we still had a blast with them. We had a good time discussing the challenges and joys of parenthood. Our visit with them motivated me more to do a toy overhaul. There are many toys that I've wanted to get rid of, but I always feel guilty about getting rid of toys that are given to our children. However, I read on this blog once that the gifter takes joy in giving the gift and once the gift is yours, it's your decision what you do with it. I have to try to remember this, but it is a challenge for me. The fact of the matter is though, that there are toys that make your children use their imagination and be creative and there are other toys that do it for them. The former is way better for a child's development and the types of toys that just entertain children at a push of a button (or even without one) teach a child to just want to be entertained instead of doing things for his/herself. So, I will be doing a major toy overhaul in the near future.... but I digress... back to the fun activities of the weekend.
It just happened that my cousin and her family were coming to visit my sister (who lives near where my in-laws used to live) the weekend after my in-laws were moving. So we got to see my cousin and my sister at the same trip! Friday morning we went to a spray park together. It was a bit cool for water play but Mary and Philip still had a good time. Here are some pics:
Philip really loved just getting right into the water. He crawled right to the water and was bouncing up and down squealing! He had a great time!
He really likes to put his hand in the water and feel the water spraying on it. hehehe!
Mary is a little less adventurous with spraying water. She really prefers pools instead of sprayers. She doesn't like to get water on her face. hehe! So she stuck pretty much to just sticking her hands or feet in the water.
Mary liked to climb and sit on these cool water spray sculptures. hehe!
After the spray park we went back to Auntie Yaya (Angela's) place. Mary and Katie (my cousin's little girl) had fun playing Uno together. Well, ok, they weren't really playing Uno, but they were pretty good at sorting out the cards by color. hehehe! I think they had fun together! After lunch we went back to the hotel so Mary could take a nap. For dinner, my Uncle Moses and Aunt Jhyfen drove from hours away for a "Pasta Throwdown" between my sister and Uncle Moses. We decided it wasn't really fair, because they both made different types of sauce. My Uncle made a pesto pasta very similar to something I made up to make for my family which I thought was so funny! My sister made a red sauce made only of red peppers! They were both yum and there was no real formal vote since we kinda decided it wasn't fair that they made different types of sauce and most of the people there just prefer pesto to red sauce period.
Here were the two contest submissions. hehe!Here's a pic of the chefs.
After dinner we had Abbots frozen custard for dessert. YUM!!!!! Here's an awesome pic of my sister drinking the last bit of melted custard out of the carton. How does she stay so skinny you ask? Well, for one thing, she hasn't had kids yet, LOL and she works out... everyday. So, she's not just skinny, she's strong and normally eats healthy, which is ultimately what's important... but I digress again...
Alrighty. Getting to the last bit of the week here. Yesterday we went blueberry picking. FUN! Mary was so cute picking blueberries. She was very good at making sure to pick only blue ones and not the purple ones (not ripe yet). It was kind of funny though because at first she'd spill the blueberries she'd already pick when she bent over to pick other berries. HAHA! She figured it out though. Here's a pic of Mary picking blueberries and one of us all together! :)
After this we went to the playground at my sister's apartment complex and then went out to lunch all together with my sister, her husband, my cousin and her family, my Uncle Moses and Auntie Jhyfen. Mary had a really hard time there but the food was awesome! :) Now, it's time to spend some time with my hubby on his birthday! More on that later either tonight or tomorrow.
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