Two Grandkids' March Visit

Our daughter Robin brought her 10-yr-old daughter and her 7-yr-old son to visit us during their Oklahoma City school spring break March 13-18. They arrived Monday, March 13. My husband got an idea online to meet them at the airport dressed as Darth Vader. Their entire family is Star Wars fans. I was able to buy a relatively inexpensive mask and cape on Amazon to help him carry out his plan. Frank printed up a sign stating ROBIN ... I AM YOUR FATHER.

We parked and upon entering the terminal we asked a Southwest staff member if wearing a mask like Darth Vader constituted a security threat but they OK'd the outfit. We waited at a location where the passengers would be exiting from Robin's flight. A Southwest employee asked permission to take Frank's photo. After she did she said, referring to her fellow workers, "The Southwest family is going to love this!" Several other people noticed, laughed, and took cell phone pictures. Flight passengers exiting before Robin glanced over and smiled. 

Finally came Robin, scanning the crowd for Frank and me. Her eyes lit briefly on the sign and she thought, "Wow, there is another passenger on our flight named Robin." Then she read further and it clicked. "What are the odds that there was also an Autumn and an Isaiah?" She broke into a wide grin and nudged Autumn and Isaiah to look at Darth Vader. Then a brief photo session ensued before retrieving their luggage to drive home. Obviously Frank took off the mask to drive but Isaiah had fun with it en route.

They had left Oklahoma City on a butt-crack-of-dawn flight and so were pretty tired. Of course naps were out of the question. Nothing that a trip to a local park could not rejuvenate. There is Autumn, hanging upside down on the climbing structure with a new friend she just made. Isaiah spent time playing in the sand with some new friends he just met. He also devoted time and effort to putting on his shoes with laces, no longer velcro, practicing his newly acquired skill of tying a bow.

Once back at the house I pulled from storage a Vintage 1980 Little Tikes Build 'n Play Farm to assemble. Although designed with large components for toddlers, the barn building does seem to fascinate older kids as well. More details on the barn/grandkid combination are toward the end of my WanderOrPonder post for 3/21/23  where grandkids from my son's family loved it during their January visit.

By far the most popular items in Grandma's toy arsenal is a pair nerf guns that fire missiles. They pump up with air pressure and then propel the foam projectiles quite a distance. After the visit, Frank and I found most of the missiles lodged in a embossed metal basket on top of one of our hutches. The rounded noses of these missiles as well as their triple tail fins had been superglued back on many times in their lifetime.

On Wednesday, Robin, Autumn, and I went north to Danville to visit a quilt show at the Museum of San Ramon Valley where I had two quilts displayed . The exhibit at the time was titled Stir Crazy Quilts Quilting During the Pandemic and was running February 1 - May 31, 2023. The criterion for entry was quilts made during the time period of the lockdown during the COVID-19 pandemic.

My quilts were Christmas Cars whose completion is detailed in my DianeLoves2Quilt blog post dated 12/18/20 and Fifty Shades of Taupe, whose completion is detailed in my DianeLoves2Quilt blog post dated  6/29/20. Robin, Autumn, and I posed for photos in front of each.

Autumn is proudly wearing a cardigan I crocheted for her. Details about it are in my DianeLoves2Quilt blog post dated 12/31/22. She was quite eager to talk to the other show goers about what her grandma had made for her and that she had selected the color palette herself. I had made two others of these cardigans which she had outgrown and still wanted yet another. She also had definite opinions, which she readily shared, about the quilts displayed.

Autumn slept in Alex's former bedroom which has a Micky Mouse theme. I also have a mannequin in there whose outfit I change periodically for a holiday or the season, just for fun. When Autumn's cousins were here in late January they dressed here in a purple sequins top and a pink necklace for Valentine's Day. I thought Autumn might take a similar interest. I was comically wrong. Autumn asked that the mannequin be moved out. She claimed that when she awoke during the night, she startled, thinking someone was in the room with her. We both agreed it was sort of silly, but we moved out the "person" none-the-less.

On Thursday we all went to watch Alex bowl during his Alley Cats league. He was quite pleased to have an audience that was enthusiastic and cheered him on. He also liked that we stayed and had pizza afterwards.

Throughout the week, Robin intermittently and doggedly worked on quilting her blue stars quilt on my Handi Quilter Sweet Sixteen longarm machine. Here is Robin sandwiching it with the bamboo batting, smoothing out all the wrinkles before spray basting. It is huge, measuring over ~84" x ~96", big enough to fit over Autumn's bed with overhang on the edges. More in-progress photos are shown in my DianeLoves2Quilt post dated 4/15/23.

On Friday, the last full day of their visit, Frank, Robin, Autumn, Isaiah, and I went to the Discovery Museum in San Jose. Frank and I had taken Alex there last August as told in my WanderOrPonder post dated 8/29/22. Especially popular with Autumn and Isaiah was the drop tower where a falling bowling ball provided the kinetic energy to rotate a fan. The ball got its potential energy before the drop from the muscle power of Autumn/Isaiah/Robin lifting it via a pulley system.

Another activity that drew a lot of interest was building with huge foam blocks.

Before leaving I made sure both Autumn and Isaiah let me take their picture by the display of rubber duckies. Autumn tried making a duck face; Isaiah was content with smiling his natural handsome self.

Frank and I dutifully got up the next morning at 3:30am to take Robin, Autumn, and Isaiah to their 6:00am flight. We had thoroughly enjoyed the visit. Frank and I returned home and went back to bed. I hope Robin, Autumn, and Isaiah got to sleep on the plane.