Four Grandkids' January Visit

Our son Dan brought his four kids to visit us for a 4-day weekend at the end of January 2023. They arrived around 6:00 pm on Thursday Jan 26 and left around 6:00 pm on Sunday Jan 29. It was a blast. The kids enjoyed their stay with us and their mom got the opportunity to take a bit of a break. 

MEET TEE
First on the schedule, as advertised, was that the kids got to meet and greet our newly acquired cat Tee.  Tee joined Frank and Snoopy and me in January of 2022 so she had over a year to adjust to our house and make it her home. Initially timid and hiding for only about a week, she is now very friendly and even brazen. Tee is so named because when she is happy and content, she twitches her tail. (Initially named T for Tail, we adjusted the spelling to Tee so vets and kennels do not mistake T as being only an initial and not a full name.)  Tee was patient and tolerated – dare I say even enjoyed – the kids hovering around her. But three kids was her limit. She would slip off and hide under a bed somewhere when a fourth kid arrived. The two older girls Vivian and Lillian were best with her, loving but wisely allowing Tee her space. Lillian was determined that at some point before she flew back to SoCal, Tee would sit in her lap.

HOPSCOTCH
On the first morning of the visit Lillian permitted me to do her hair in a French braid. I had to prove to Carrie that I was taking good care of her girls in her absence.

We did not plan any major outings while they were here. We had pleasant weather so I broke out our set of sidewalk chalk and the kids had fun making hopscotch boards. One of the neighbors came over and watched; he liked the nostalgic aspect of seeing kids doing classic sidewalk games. Vivian was the hopscotch chalk guru.

I took a turn at hopping along but I was not as flexible as Dan as he twisted over to follow the instructions of specially sequenced play. The youngest two, Will and Irene liked climbing our landscaping rocks in a pseudo king-of-the-mountain game.

PARK

Later in the afternoon we drove over to a local park. Grandpa was kept busy pushing Irene in the swing and guiding her on a roller slide. 

Vivian was the high climber. Irene was the low climber with assistance from her dad. The middles, Lillian and William, were running around up and down the hillocks so fast and far I was never really able to a get a photo of them in action.

I did manage to get all together for a group photo for proof of presence.

TRAIN TIME
Once back home, there was afternoon time spent out in the garage with Grandpa and his model trains. The "middles" Will and Lil not only observed, but they also operated the trains on the layout.

SEWING
Another day, we spent time in my sewing room on small projects the kids cut out, sewed on my machine, stuffed, and hand-sewed closed. More photos and details are in my other blog DianeLoves2Quilt in the post titled Sewing with Grandkids dated February 7, 2023. 

LEGOS
Dan and Frank went up into the attic and brought down four plastic bins of Dan's childhood LEGOs, each bin the size of the one shown on the table. The kids enjoyed playing with the bricks. I packed them up after they left and mailed them out in four 10"x12"x15" Home Depot boxes.

Irene enjoyed Fisher Price Mega Bloks, a jumbo toddler version of LEGOS, on her own while "the middles" hung out with her!

BROWNIES and BOARD GAMES
Another source of entertainment was eating brownies. This activity had no age limit! Afterwards was a rousing game or two of Sequence between Vivian and Grandpa.

In terms of other card games, Vivian learned to play solitaire on my computer. She explored a different selection of solitaire games than her other grandmother had taught her. My guess is that Nana had taught her the classic Klondike or Vegas Solitaire. I showed her Freecell. Vivian, after exploring the menu on the left, showed me Spider 1 Suit. Then 8-yr-old Vivian proceeded to guide her 6-yr-old sister Lillian through a few of those games.

A for APPLE
Irene loved the Squiggly Worms game. An apple with many holes holds green worms with colored dots on their bottoms. Once loaded with "worms", a spring-loaded side lever can be pulled, and, for a short period of time, the worms can randomly pop up and down waiting to be plucked from their individual holes. She giggled during the noisy, fast-moving part. The plucking was too quick for her to be successful in getting all the worms by herself; but she loved re-loading all the worms into their hole habitats.

B for BARN
I brought out a Vintage 1980 Little Tikes Build 'n Play Farm that Dan had enjoyed with his sister as children. It makes a pretty big structure as can be seen on the box lid; the components are large enough that they go together easily and quickly. Horse-lover Lillian was quick to build a corral as the first item of utmost importance. Irene decided that the horse was best placed in her daddy's boot for safe keeping. The barn did eventually get built, at least partially.

F for FOOTBALL
Not only the kids had fun. Dan and Frank got to watch the NFL Conference Championship game together. The Philadelphia Eagles went head to head with the San Francisco 49ers.

 

The company was good but the game outcome was not. Dan and Frank were rooting for the 49ers; the 49ers were trounced by the Eagles. At least the pizza roll snacks and male bonding made it worth while.

OTHER UNIQUE GAMES

Vivian enjoyed putting together a pieceless puzzle. I bought this many years ago as a novelty item and I see I can no longer get another one. The puzzle is one big long jigsaw cut-out out of the same foam material of mouse pads. It is a great manipulative and no piece can ever get lost. It has two sides to make two different pictures with the instructions, "flatten, connect, complete".

William found his own novel form of entertainment and took his older sister Lillian along for the ride. We have a cactus shaped scratching post for our cat. William planted his feet on the base and used the two protruding cactus arms as the throttles for his "motorcycle". With Lillian hanging on, they leaned around the corners, complete with revving engine and screeching tires sound effects. Irene remained a safe observer on the sidelines.

LOVES for SNOOPY and TEE before LEAVING
At fourteen years old Snoopy can be quite stiff and slow moving. Dan came out from his shower and was amazed to see that Snoopy had somehow managed to climb up onto the guest bed where Dan had been sleeping. Snoopy does not frequent this room in the house and climbing up like that was quite a feat since the bed is raised on blocks to make it high enough for beneath-the-bed storage. We guess Snoopy just wanted some extra love and petting when noticing that Dan was packing to leave. Dan delivered.

Lillian was patient and calm and quiet and she finally achieved her goal of having Tee sit in her lap before the end of the visit. On the last day, just hours before leaving for the airport Tee made herself comfortable in Lillian's lap and purred... and purred... and purred – and twitched her tail.  Lillian was thrilled.

We all enjoyed the four-day whirlwind visit. Frank and I really appreciated our grandkids being hand-delivered to us for our in situ enjoyment.