Lydia had talked for days before Grandma and Grandpa came about getting bear hugs from Grandpa. I think this one might have been a black bear hug.
Grandpa also likes playing "Octopus Grandpa" which involves grabbing any kids that get too close to him in a big hug. The kids really liked all the extra attention.
We also got to see Derek's protective brother side. Here he is shouting at Grandpa to let go of his sisters and trying to free them in a rescue attempt while they are laughing and having fun.
Grandma brought a fun Easter egg decorating machine. You put the egg in a hole and then it spins the egg really fast while you hold a marker steady against it creating an egg with a bunch of stripes on it.
Even Derek was able to create a perfect striped egg.
Here are the finished products.
Grandpa kept trying to get Karina to ride her bike for him - for whatever reason, kids in our neighborhood just don't ride their bikes around, so our kids have never really learned to ride their bikes. Karina got going, but has trouble stopping or turning.
We have been disappointed that some of our trees in our backyard have been dying. We brought it up to my dad and he was saying he could take care of a couple of them for us. He shortly realized that my tools are lacking in comparison to his well-stocked tool shed when our tiny chainsaw kept burning through batteries and the motor overheated trying to make its way through these trees.
Since we had already started cutting one of the trees down, we weren't about to leave it to come crashing down uncontrolled. So we made a trip to rent a more powerful chainsaw, and made short work of the tree. I think Grandpa had fun pretending to be a lumberjack.
Derek and Lydia thought it was interesting watching from a safe distance on the deck as we were cutting the trees down.
We tied ropes around the trunk toward the top of the tree.
Then pulled on the ropes as Grandpa cut through it at the right angles to make sure it fell where we wanted it to go.
Derek came and got it on the action pulling on the rope too...long before the tree was anywhere close to falling down, but he liked helping.
The primary reason for the timing of my parents' visit was for Karina's baptism. She got dressed up in Tanja's Aunt Patty's beautiful communion dress from around 1960 for this special occasion (and then sat on the couch cuddled up with Derek, Lydia, and Snoopy).
The girls with Grandma and Grandpa.
Karina did a good job smiling for the pictures that day.
Here are all of us.
And smiling outside the church after the baptism.
The girls had a Girl Scout activity where they got to make s'mores. Lydia still is not a fan of eating toasted marshmallows.
Tanja taught Karina to only turn the marshmallow a few times high above the fire so it is barely toasted since that is how she likes them.
Derek and Lydia were playing in front of our reclining couch in the family room one day while I was seated with my legs propped up. I was getting nervous because I didn't want either of the kids to crawl under my footrest and then bump their heads on the sharp metal underparts of the footrest. All of a sudden, Derek shouted "Emma!", the name of Lydia's stuffed beagle that has been missing for a month and we had mostly given up hope of ever seeing again after calling every place we had been that month looking for her in various lost and founds. Lydia was ecstatic to have her favorite stuffed animal back to cuddle. Tanja had looked under the couch before, but somehow Emma was wedged between the footrest and couch. Since her miraculous rescue, Emma has undergone repeated wardrobe changes, even though before her disappearance she had worn her standard purple dress every day for over a year.
Before Grandma and Grandpa left, we took them to Downtown Ellicott City so they could see some of the lingering flood damage and the businesses that still haven't recovered before they had to get on a plane to fly back home. It's sad to see such a charming downtown district still struggling to rebuild again.
Thanks for coming, Grandma and Grandpa, and Happy Mother's Day!
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