Grandma in February and April

My mom came for about 12 days in February--the first time we had seen her since the summer. She eased the daily load for me when she was here, and the kids were eager to sit next to her at dinner, listen to her read, go on special outings with her (Chick-fil-a and Einstein Bagels!), play games with her, etc. Generally they prefer Grandma to Mama and Daddy when she's around. :) Clara would even extract the necessary nutrition from me but turn to Grandma for holding, playing, or comfort.

She had mentioned that she might make a second trip this year, and I asked if she'd consider coming when Jeremy was out of town for a week on two back-to-back business trips in April, just before Easter. We're happy she came! The week was more like vacationing than single-parenting for me, since my mom was around all day and eager to give me time "off." I got a haircut, went out for brunch with friends, spent some time reading by myself at the library, ran errands by myself, started planning next year's homeschooling, etc.

Lydia enjoyed cuddling with Grandma in bed each morning

She took over the laundry, helped with all sorts of chores, organized my spices, pitched in with homeschooling, and willingly played the kids' "in a cabin by the woods" game on repeat. She set up pretend campfires on the patio with the kids, shepherded the "little lambs" (Abby and Lydia), instructed Josiah in duties of knighthood, and helped Clara with puzzles. All in all, she is much-beloved.

 She introduced the kids to a quirky math book she brought--The Life of Fred--which they loved

Josiah got to open an early birthday present from Grandma: Lego!

She handled Josiah's reading for a few days, too, which was a nice break for me! We had hit a tough spot and neither of us wanted to do it. So it was helpful to have Grandma take over for a bit.

Visitors

We've been blessed with a nice stream of visitors this year. Though now belated, I want these photos on the blog for posterity, so here's a bit about two of our May/June visitors . . .

My friend Kara flew in from Colorado for Memorial Day weekend. She graciously and seamlessly joined in with our chaos-as-usual.

Look how much littler Clara looked about three months ago!

Kara met Clara back in December. But at the end of May, Clara was quite a different babe: smiley, interested in everyone and everything, grabby, and a little shy of strange faces and terrified of Facetime (as Kara discovered when she tried to show Clara to her parents!).

Can you tell we had a child photographer?

All the kids loved having Aunt Kara around to oblige in playing and reading books. We enlisted her help in making and canning some salsa with our excessive tomato crop, too. And of course, we enjoyed her company and good conversation most of all!

Clara loves Lydia's curls!

After dropping Kara at the airport Tuesday evening after Memorial Day, we drove over to Scottsdale to meet up with Liz, one of my roommates from college, and her husband. We picnicked in a park with them, and then Liz came over for several hours the following day. We hadn't seen each other since our friend-and-roommate Mallory's wedding, way back in 2010!

And the day after Liz visited, we packed up the van and dapper duds and drove up to Flagstaff for a whirlwind wedding weekend. (Sorry about the alliteration.)

I've posted previously about Daniel and Lauren's wedding, so look up those posts for pictures of that. But here I'll jump to the next visitor: my sister Elisabeth, better known 'round these parts as Aunt Bobo.

This was Elisabeth's first time meeting Clara!

 

We came back from the wedding weekend Sunday evening (June 5th), unloaded the van, got the kids a late supper and put them to bed, and then I picked up Elisabeth from the airport around midnight. She stayed with us til Thursday.

Abby likes doing crazy faces now, too

During our drive from Flagstaff to Phoenix, Josiah had been detailing his plans for new Lego creations (he dearly missed his Lego in the few days we were gone). He had a mental design for an "underwater policeman's ship" in particular. Lo and behold, Aunt Bobo brought him just about exactly what he wished for: a little Lego set with a "good guy" driving an underwater ship to take jewels away from an evil octopus! He was over the moon with ecstasy.

And the girls were not forgotten! Aunt Bobo's sets for them included little kitties and bunnies and pet accessories. They were thrilled to have Lego of their very own for the first time.

Besides just bringing Lego, Aunt Bobo also complied with the children's requests that she play Lego with them. Some days it seemed Josiah asked, "Aunt Bobo, will you play with me?" just about every other minute. Any time we got sidetracked with talking, housework, cooking, etc., he'd remind her of her primary visitor duty. :)

Playing Star Wars or Pirates or Robin Hood . . . 

Aunt Bobo is surely the bad guy, whatever game it is!