We had a fantastic time with family this weekend, celebrating Easter with Grandma and Grandpa Wilson. There was swimming, an Easter egg hunt of course, delicious food and a surprise 60th birthday party for Grandpa. The boys loved swimming, eating candy, and playing with their cousins. They were seriously packing the candy away the whole day. It was a miracle any made it home with them. There may have been some parental intervention on that point. I was literally saying to my kids, "I'm glad you found all that candy lying around, go put it in your basket instead of shoving it all in your mouth." It was a first for me to see kids with a handful of dum dum suckers all in their mouths at once. To their credit, they looked like miniature balloon bouquets, not fluffly bunny contests. The cousins were nice, and kept handing Luke chocolate eggs. At one point Luke left a Dum Dum sucker on the floor. Someone stepped in it, and then Grandpa threw it away. Luke came running to me, "lollipop!" and pointing to the floor. Seriously, I was glad someone else did away with it. But I did find his indignation endearing.
Thomas and Spencer took Grandpa for a walk around the neighborhood to distract him for the surprise party. We met them in the backyard and yelled "surprise!" and sang, "Daddy's Homecoming" only it was Grandpa's homecoming. John said it was perfect even though we thought they would come back through the house but since they walked around to the backyard we all came trickling out of the house one by one, which gave Grandpa time to see each of his kids and grandkids as they came out, and for the birthday surprise to kick in gradually. Everyone was frantically running through the house to meet him outside. We were going for more of giving David a heart attack at the front door but and I'm glad it worked out the way it did. He totally loved it, and the grandkids were really cute trying on the humungous silly 60th birthday sunglasses Kathy had gotten. Anthony definitely rocked them the best. I hope his mom got a picture.
Luke was happy to see his aunts and grandparents that he recognized, which is so sweet to me. He's just so little (20 months) so I don't expect him to remember names. When Aunt Deana arrived, he said "Deana, Deana, Deana," until she came over to him and gave him a kiss. Once we had been there an hour or so he warmed up and let people hold him. He made a new friend in the kitchen, Jason, who was slaving away preparing dish after dish seemingly all day (to our great enjoyement). Jason is married to John's stepsister Stephanie and is an excellent chef. Luke would run in the kitchen timidly trying to get Jason's attention but nervous about getting tickled, and then Jason would attack him with tickles and teasing and Luke would giggle and scream. Between the two of them it was a huge racket, and totally awesome.
There were cousins running around everywhere between all the families that were able to come and dozens of eggs for them to find. All of the girls looked so cute in their Easter dresses, like birds running across the grass together. The nieces made me excited to have a baby girl soon!
I loved visiting with John's sisters outside in the gorgeous weather, watching my boys in the pool, hearing the men tell funny stories and eating delicious food. John most enjoyed playing shuffleboard and talking with his dad. The biggest surprise for Grandpa's birthday was John's sister Sarah flying in from Minnesota, and it was nice to visit with her and hear about her family. The saddest thing ever this weekend was that John's sister MariAnn and her family were sick and had to miss out. Of course they were looking forward to the party so much and we all felt for their disappointment and can't wait to see them again healthy. Especially Karl, since he's had pnuemonia and I hate pneumonia. Poor guy. As each activity would come up someone would say something about MariAnn's family not being there and it was sad but we tried to be happy. *Sniff* Hi MariAnn :)
I let John stay until 10pm playing his dad in shuffleboard with the boys shining flashlights around the court and pretending to help. We were exhausted and the next morning everyone slept in at least an hour and Spencer came running in to our room and curled up in bed next to me then went right to sleep and slept for another hour. It was the sweetest thing, especially since he and Thomas have never done that; they stay in bed yelling "Mommy Mommy Mommy!" until they have permission to get out of bed.
All in all, an excellent weekend.
Thomas and Spencer took Grandpa for a walk around the neighborhood to distract him for the surprise party. We met them in the backyard and yelled "surprise!" and sang, "Daddy's Homecoming" only it was Grandpa's homecoming. John said it was perfect even though we thought they would come back through the house but since they walked around to the backyard we all came trickling out of the house one by one, which gave Grandpa time to see each of his kids and grandkids as they came out, and for the birthday surprise to kick in gradually. Everyone was frantically running through the house to meet him outside. We were going for more of giving David a heart attack at the front door but and I'm glad it worked out the way it did. He totally loved it, and the grandkids were really cute trying on the humungous silly 60th birthday sunglasses Kathy had gotten. Anthony definitely rocked them the best. I hope his mom got a picture.
Luke was happy to see his aunts and grandparents that he recognized, which is so sweet to me. He's just so little (20 months) so I don't expect him to remember names. When Aunt Deana arrived, he said "Deana, Deana, Deana," until she came over to him and gave him a kiss. Once we had been there an hour or so he warmed up and let people hold him. He made a new friend in the kitchen, Jason, who was slaving away preparing dish after dish seemingly all day (to our great enjoyement). Jason is married to John's stepsister Stephanie and is an excellent chef. Luke would run in the kitchen timidly trying to get Jason's attention but nervous about getting tickled, and then Jason would attack him with tickles and teasing and Luke would giggle and scream. Between the two of them it was a huge racket, and totally awesome.
There were cousins running around everywhere between all the families that were able to come and dozens of eggs for them to find. All of the girls looked so cute in their Easter dresses, like birds running across the grass together. The nieces made me excited to have a baby girl soon!
I loved visiting with John's sisters outside in the gorgeous weather, watching my boys in the pool, hearing the men tell funny stories and eating delicious food. John most enjoyed playing shuffleboard and talking with his dad. The biggest surprise for Grandpa's birthday was John's sister Sarah flying in from Minnesota, and it was nice to visit with her and hear about her family. The saddest thing ever this weekend was that John's sister MariAnn and her family were sick and had to miss out. Of course they were looking forward to the party so much and we all felt for their disappointment and can't wait to see them again healthy. Especially Karl, since he's had pnuemonia and I hate pneumonia. Poor guy. As each activity would come up someone would say something about MariAnn's family not being there and it was sad but we tried to be happy. *Sniff* Hi MariAnn :)
I let John stay until 10pm playing his dad in shuffleboard with the boys shining flashlights around the court and pretending to help. We were exhausted and the next morning everyone slept in at least an hour and Spencer came running in to our room and curled up in bed next to me then went right to sleep and slept for another hour. It was the sweetest thing, especially since he and Thomas have never done that; they stay in bed yelling "Mommy Mommy Mommy!" until they have permission to get out of bed.
All in all, an excellent weekend.
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