Gracenbelle and Grandma Sue… Love these two!
♥
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Tag Archives: grandparents
Gido & Grae
A scene that doesn’t happen often enough, but we’re very thankful that Gracen’s Gido was able to meet us in the Okanagan for the weekend. A Morning Egg Hunt
This morning we all gathered at Grandma Sue’s house for a big Sunday brunch and a backyard egg hunt with all of the cousins.
Now before I go on, I must admit I was totally clueless about the fact that the Easter Bunny is the one who hides eggs for kids to find. Seriously – what?! I knew he (or she) was in charge of leaving Easter baskets, but i guess I just thought parents hid eggs in the yard for kids… Is that crazy? Anyways, I’m glad I had this epiphany last night in the company of my brother and sister-in-law, because I totally would have been the terrible Auntie to ruin it all by saying something like, “Okay, guys. Your daddy and I need a minute to hide all of the eggs” after breakfast this morning.
Knowing what I now know, we asked all of the kids to go downstairs and play while we tidied up the breakfast dishes, and Gary and I snuck out to quickly stash the eggs around the yard. That Easter Bunny sure is a smart rabbit… He (or she) left a baker’s dozen of one colour of eggs for each child, thus allowing the slower ones enough time to uncover their treasures (and us to make sure Miss G got all of the eggs filled with Gracen-style treats).
The hunt went really well. The boys’ eggs were hidden well enough to keep them busy for almost the whole time, the kids were great about only collecting their colour of eggs, and everyone was excited about their goodies.
Grae’s eggs were filled some of her favourite snacks (trail mix, sunflower seeds, healthy banana chips, cashews, dried pineapple, and seedy crackers), my homemade healthy crispy rice treats formed into egg shapes, some fun glitter glue, stickers, and mystery capsules. She was pretty excited to say the least.
I know that there are a million perks to going and that we’ll be home for 3 months of summer each year, but mornings like this make me a little bit sad that we’ll be taking Gracen away from her cousins and grandparents come August…
♥
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My Babies.
Perhaps my favourite photo of the entire weekend… This bunch has my heart.Easter Dinner on the Farm
Tonight Brad’s parents had everyone, including all of my family, out to their place in the country for a big Easter dinner. The Okanagan has been blessing us with some amazing weather, and because of it, we spent almost the entire night outside in the backyard. Barefooted babies, football tossing, and ridiculous amounts of delicious food made for an absolutely lovely evening.
Here is our night in photos…
Anxiously awaiting the arrival of her cousins.
Grandma Sue and her girls.
Dinner outdoors.
Girl talk.
Little performer.
♥
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Let’s Get the Party Started
As of 3 o’clock on Wednesday afternoon, my brother had officially told my mom that he and his clan would not be making it to the Okanagan this weekend. I had no idea, and when I spoke to him later that night I talked about a big Easter dinner with the whole crew, a big backyard egg hunt for the littles, and the amazing weather that was supposed to be in store for all of those in the Okanagan. The conversation started at 8:07 p.m. and by 8:15, he’d committed to packing up the entire crew and hitting the road by 10 a.m. on Friday. Now that’s the persuasion of a big sister. ☺
We all gathered at my mom’s place tonight and celebrated with a big dinner, the kids running around the backyard barefoot, and Gracen staying up way past her {usually very early} bedtime.
♥
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A Morning in the Sunny Okanagan
Running on the grass…
Swinging in a tree…
Learning about lacrosse…
And Bella hugs. Surprise, Surprise
This afternoon we made the trip up to the Okanagan to spend time with our families for Easter. Upon our arrival to Grandma Charlotte and Poppop’s house, Grae discovered this MASSIVE toy horse in the living room. I should really be {at least a little bit} surprised, but I must say, I’m not… Icing on the cake? There are cowgirl boots and a hat to go with it. ☺
♥
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A Surprise Package
Is there anything more fun than receiving a surprise package with your name on it? Probably not.
This morning Miss G woke up to a great big box from her Manmaw Sue and it was like she had won the lottery. While some kids her age might tear through the package, throwing opened items aside to make way for new ones, this girl does not. She carefully unfolds the paper around an item, takes a moment to figure out what it is and what it does, and then sets it aside before carefully selecting the next. I love that about her. She genuinely appreciates each item. Glitter? Amazing! Shiny eggs? Awesome. Stickers? Even better! Everything is special.
And she didn’t waste any time putting her new Easter supplies to good use, either. We took out a big bin, added some of our homemade coloured rice and a few of her new Easter goodies, and she instantly had a scooping/dumping/egg shaker making station.
♥
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“Reindeer” Food
Afternoon walks with Grandma Charlotte have become a routine around here… Each day, G returns with a lapful of hay for ‘Santa’s reindeer’ (a white-tailed doe and her fawn) and sets it out on the snow-covered lawn so we can watch them eat it up in the evenings.
Just one of the perks of being out in the country…
♥
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iPhoneography // Baba’s House
We’ve had such a lovely time at my Baba and Opa’s house the last couple of days… Besides being a wonderful host, amazing cook, and very talented painter (giving us wall after wall of art to gaze at), she’s so, so great with Grae. I swear she still has all of the patience, motivation, and creativity she did when my brother and I used to stay with her as kids, if not more. She’s read books, played memory, fashioned doll clothes from scarves, crafted mini snow ladies from styrofoam and toothpicks, and served all of Grae’s drinks in fancy teacups and glass goblets since arriving a couple of days ago. She’s also given Grae full permission to roam and the four levels of their giant house as she pleases and swears “There’s nothing she can break. And if she does break something, then great. It’s one less thing I have to clean.”
Gracen absolutely adores her, and so do we.
Love you, Baba!
♥
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iPhoneography // St. Paul in a Day
Whew. It was a whirlwind, but GREAT day today. This morning, we packed up the vehicle and made the trip up to St. Paul, the teeny tiny town that my mom, dad, brother, and I were all born in. The roads were good, our little traveller was patient as ever, and the town was virtually unchanged. In fact, the street lamps were still lined with the exact shooting star decorations that hung every holiday season of my childhood {which I kind of love}.
First, we stopped off at my Gido’s place (my dad’s dad and Gracen’s ‘big Gido’) for a visit… It had been quite a while since we last saw him, and we had a lovely visit. He was absolutely amazed by all of the things Miss G can now do and together, they sang possibly the most heartwarming rendition of Rudloph the Red-Nosed Reindeer I’ve ever heard.
Afterwards, we popped by my Grandma and Grandpa’s house (my mom’s parents) to see both them and my Auntie Lou. By this time, we had long passed Grae’s nap time and the crazy overtired energy had kicked in, but it was wonderful to visit anyways. Grandma and Grandpa had put together a big spread of food, Auntie Lou spoiled G with a bag full of clothes and activities (just like she did for me when I was little), and we chatted until it was time to hit the road back to Edmonton again.
Lucky for us, Gracen was sound asleep before we even turned out onto the highway and we enjoyed a big portion of our ride amidst a gorgeous sunset.
♥
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Time With Grandparents
This weekend, Grae learned about My Little Ponies and Molly dolls from Grandma Sue (sadly, I didn’t manage to sneak any photos)…
She gardened and went on walks with Grandma Charlotte…
And watched Karmin videos and read ‘the crab book’ {about one million times} with Poppop.
Next on our list… Getting out to see her {much further away} Gido and getting him out this way to visit us. ☺
♥
Poppop Celebrates 60
Tonight we celebrated Gracen’s Poppop’s 60th birthday with a low-key backyard barbecue. The weather was gorgeous, the company was good, the food was delicious, and most importantly… the pool was warm! Oh, and how can I forget – the cake was only slightly gravel-y… If you follow me on instagram (jkossowan), you know what I’m talking about. ☺
Gracen and Grandpa Dave, a.k.a. Poppop.
Pool time!
Twirl time.
Wild water baby.
‘Hey, look what I can do!’
Stomp, stomp.
Catch with Poppop.
Dinner time!
Happy birthday, Poppop!
♥
Bella & Berries
Each day that we’ve been here in the Okanagan, Grandma Charlotte has taken Gracen along on one of her daily walks with Bella, her two year old water spaniel. Besides some quality Manmaw-Gracen time, the result has been Grae becoming much more comfortable around Bella, Bella becoming much more calm and trustworthy around Gracen, and this Mama {and Papa} having an hour of our day to do anything we like. (I must admit, living overseas for the first year of Grae’s life and now living 5 hours away from the nearest grandparent has not allowed us many of these opportunities, so at first I didn’t know what to do with myself… But I quickly realized that the time could be very well spent doing little crafty projects for Gracen’s second birthday party, which will be celebrating at the end of August. Yay for getting things done early!)
The other thing that’s come of these walks is the realization that there were several currant bushes bursting with berries down at the farm. So this morning, rather than sending Gracen and GC on their way, we all headed down the narrow dirt road, pails in hand, with the goal of clearing the bushes and using the currants to make something yummy.
Of course, we had to stop part ways to allow Gracen to give Bella a treat. During the past week, she’s become the official doler of puppy goodies and she takes the job very seriously.
We arrived at the bushes to finding them bursting with tiny, dark berries. While Papa whined pretty much the entire time (hi Babe! ☺) and even tried to sit in the grass and just watch us pick, Gracen loved picking berries. She carefully plucked them off of the branches, gave them a sideways glance, and then popped them into her yellow bucket.
Of course, she made some time to sample them as well.
Before we knew it, the bushes were empty and we were on our way home with a bucket full of currants and a plan to make my yummy baked berry oatmeal for breakfast the next day.
♥