Spending Time with the Grandchildren

I don’t normally post pictures of our grandchildren because we don’t see them that often, but we were privileged to spend a whole weekend with them — no parents around either!

They are fun to be with and I had activities planned for while we were there.

Ages are 5, 4, 2 and 1. The 1 year old is a cousin who is being cared for by our daughter temporarily.

When we arrived Friday evening, the two older boys were waiting for us with grins on their faces. The first question out of Cooper’s mouth was “Did you bring your iPad?” The iPad is their favorite activity and they take turns using it. I set a timer for 15 minutes and when it goes off they hand the iPad off to the other brother. At one time, Miles, the oldest, asked me to set the timer for 20 minutes but after they tried that he said it was too long for him to wait to get the iPad so he asked I bring it down to 19 minutes. Crazy boy! He wouldn’t know how many minutes I set it for as they really play on it together.

Some of the apps I have on the iPad for them are:

• Fruit Memory
• Toca Kitchen
• Bugs & Numbers
• Talking Tom
• ITB for Kids
• Color Drops
• Hill Climb

The older boys like Talking Tom and Toca Kitchen the best. I’ve had most of these children’s apps on my iPad for the past 2 years and they never tire of them. Now that they are getting older I’ll be checking out some newer ones for them.

Another game they like to play that’s not on the iPad is Battle Ship.  Do you remember that from when you were a kid?

One of the outdoor activities I had planned was teaching them how to fly a kite.  Well, actually my husband was the one who was going to teach them.  The first day we went out there was no wind so the kite flopped on the ground. The following day though we had a lot of wind and the kite flew way up in the sky.  Success!

Here’s my husband teaching 2 year old Caroline how to fly a kite. She received encouragement from her brother along with claps because of her success.  I bought two kites at a new store nearby called Cabela’s.

Here’s Cooper flying the kite.  He really got into it!

We had little success with making water balloons.  I bought a kit called Tie Not Water Balloons that makes tying the balloons a little easier but the balloons seemed a little bit fragile. You must get the right amount of water in them — not too much or they burst.

Here’s Miles guarding his water balloon.

The younger girls liked being on the swings. Higher and higher they wanted to go.

A late morning project was making cards for their father who had a birthday the following week.  The kids were excited to find a place to hide the cards until the “right” time. It was a lot of fun and we used glue glitter and washable markers.

Here’s our paper supplier … (laughing).

Sunday night we got pumped up to watch the Blackhawks hockey team play the LA Kings. After the girls went to bed we huddled up on the sofa to watch the game.  Their father had gotten tickets to the game so I had the kids watch carefully to see if they could spot their mother and father on TV. (They didn’t.)

Unfortunately, Cooper did not make it past the first half hour.

Miles was rarin’ to go though! Unfortunately, the Blackhawks lost the game and his sensitive heart couldn’t take it. He cried and we had a discussion about not being a sore loser. I pointed him to the Blackhawks players and how they congratulated the other team and no one was upset. That seemed to settle him down for the night.

Overall we had a great time. I was a little concerned that the kids might miss their folks so much that they would whine for them but that never happened.

We’re looking forward to seeing them again in a couple of weeks for a family reunion.

Making memories — priceless!