My sister Hannah visited us for a week at the beginning of April, and we all enjoyed having her around. Beyond her help around the house and with the kids, she enabled us to make a fairly smooth IKEA trip (three adults to four kids in that labyrinthine store is better than two on four!) and allowed Jeremy and me to check a big home improvement item off his list: better insulating the attic. (I wasn't expecting this job to be as long and messy as it was! It would have been longer and much messier without Hannah to keep the kids away from the blower, the hoses, the closet to the attic, and Mama and Daddy.)
Josiah, Lydia, and Abby were thrilled to have Aunt Hannah here. They roped her into many of their games, both outdoors and in. She helped build an impressive pirate ship out of Duplo and masterminded a "girl-disguised-as-cabin-boy-steals-the-pirates'-gold" game that the kids still repeat multiple times a day. They've also been dictating certain roles and behaviors to Jeremy and me when we agree to play with them. Earlier today I was supposed to be the "bad pirate captain" locked in a "dungeon." Then Josiah told me I was supposed to steal the key and get out, at which point he would come with a triumphant "Hahaha!" and fight me back to prison. I hear a lot of "please you say ______"--scripting my role based on what Aunt Hannah said when playing with them, no doubt!
Hannah and I took the kids to the zoo the Friday she was here. It was a zoo of people, too! I didn't expect quite so many--some kids still must have been on spring break. We took the loop to see the lion, hyena, and leopard, and Abby conquered her fears and did not cry upon the sight of any of them. (The leopard was a let-down--way back up in his enclosure and hardly to be seen. And the lions did not roar like they did the last time when my mom took the kids.)
Abby
Josiah watching the Egyptian duck chase a gazelle around the rhino--pretty funny!
We skipped the goat-petting part, but the kids did get to play on the tree-fort playground and take a ride on the carousel (on which Aunt Hannah was kind enough to accompany them!). This time Abby did not ride a lion, knowingly or otherwise. :)
Good thing we didn't let Lydia be the guide!
Lydia looking cool
Snack break
We had a couple picnics in the park, one at the "duck park" and one at the McCormick-Stillman Railroad Park. The kids enjoyed riding their bikes and scooters. Aunt Hannah borrowed Josiah's scooter (he rode his bike) and gave the children rides with her, which was a big hit.
Hannah put her haircutting skills to good use in improving Josiah's style. She also cut my hair before she left and recommended some clips to help tame the girls' wild manes.
Hannah brought some gifts from Aunt Rachel and Grandma and Pa. We tried the dresses from Aunt Rach on the girls, and they were oh-so-cute, so I took way too many pictures of them . . . (Because the girls are so tall, most dresses are too short for them. Rach left these un-hemmed, so I can fit them to the girls and sew a quick hem! They're still a little loose and so should fit for a while, too. Thanks, Rachel!)
Lydia on the left, Abby on the right
Oh, Abby
Jumping!
Abby on the left, Lydia on the right
Abby
While Hannah was here we also enjoyed a quick visit with our (my and Hannah's) Uncle Don and Aunt Esther. They live in Colorado but were visiting their son and his family in Gilbert, so they stopped by on a Sunday afternoon to meet the kids and see us for a bit. I think the last time I saw them was at Andrew and Lisa's wedding--almost six years ago now!
As kids we used to spend a week or two at Uncle Don and Aunt Esther's deer camp in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan each summer, and I have many fond memories of time with them in the cabin on the bog lake--mosquitoes, hikes in the woods, the summer of worms, swimming in the lake, floating islands, lots of crafts with Mamaw, strawberry picking, wild blueberries along the plank paths, sweating in the sauna, brushing teeth at the pump, using the outhouse, building a log cabin, swinging in the hammock, reading the long afternoons away . . .
Anyway, we had a fun, full week with Aunt Hannah!
