The Great Grandma Tour and Easter

There has been so much going on the last few weeks that I need to blog about! Lets start with "The Great Grandma Tour". On March 8th we celebrated my Grandma Dottie's 86th birthday with the extended family on my mom's side. My cousins created a great quilt for her. They took pictures of grandma's 4 daughters--current and high school and then photos of all of the grandkids and their families (12 grandkids + spouses and 18 great grandkids) and made a photo quilt for her. It was really neat. We had a wonderful time seeing everyone and visiting with them.




We stayed the weekend at Grandma & Grandpa Puck's. Collin got a real kick out of the pull toy train. He would pull it a short distance and then just crack up laughing--it was hilarious!

The next weekend was Dan's Grandma DeYoung's 90th birthday party. It was held at her Retirement Residence Hall and there were many wonderful guests--family and friends. There were also some posterboards with family pictures from the past which were neat to see.



Unfortunately Collin had the flu for the weekend so we just visited for a short time to try to "reduce germ exposure". Despite a few "carpet spots", he was very cheerful throughout. And he even got some fun Easter presents from Grandma & Papa Ebbens (Thanks again!) including an Easter book and VeggieTales Video.

I had planned several "new and exciting" toys and non-toys for the party, which weren't really needed since we were only there a short time, but he really enjoyed playing with them at Grandma and Papa's house--especially while mommy made him stay on the blanket. I had a great time coming up with ideas and using many of the ideas from the books I've been reading. I had found some great little "toys" in the $1 section at Target including an Elmo backpack, sack, and notebook and a Disney Cars wallet and then found a mini fan that looks like a cellphone (2 of his "loves") on clearance at Walmart. Collin was so proud of his "ackcack" and plus its a fun word to say ;)

Some of the other fun "non-toys" we had fun with were canning rings & lids, pom-pons (another fun word ;)) & pipe cleaners, q-tips in altoid tins, cosmetic triangle sponges, and coupons (in the wallet). Some of them were a hit others weren't what I'd hoped, but overall it was a great time. I just love coming up with new "explorations" for him :)

We had a wonderful time with family...despite the "carpet spots" and extra laundry and the weekend went far too quickly.

The next weekend was Easter which we spent with my family this year. It snowed....pretty...but terribly out of season in my opinion!

We went to Church at Calvary and saw many friends there. The church was packed and the service was really nice and included an Easter breakfast sponsored by the youth group. It was a great time to visit with friends...and remember when this breakfast wouldn't have been so relaxing for us ;). Then we had lunch at Grandma & Grandpa's house. As we were finishing getting ready, Collin's cousins helped to "stretch his patience". It was the cutest thing as they read him an Easter book!

He got a bubble mower from Grandma and Grandpa Puck (Thanks again!) and since it reminds him of the vacuum--its a hit! After naptime Collin enjoyed his first official Easter Egg hunt along with his cousins. He loved it.

The eggs had coins in them (rather than candy--thank you!) and Collin enjoyed shaking each one as a noisemaker as he found it. The final egg was retrieved from above the ceiling fan--Collin was in heaven.
It's been such a wonderful few weeks visiting with family and friends!

Ode to the Vacuum

Another one of Collin's deep loves that has been developing is the vacuum. We keep the vacuum in the front coat closet and Collin goes to the closet all the time to request that we vacuum. And let me just clear this up right away to be sure you don't have the wrong impression. His love of the vacuum has NOTHING to do with wanting to clean or be in a clean environment, etc (I only wish). I assume it has to do with the fact that the vacuum has a cord and plugs into an outlet (Collin's temptation that often lands him in timeout before our vacuuming session has ended). Plus it makes lots of noise, so it must be a really "great" electric item. A couple weeks ago we were at the neighbor's "bachelor pad" for dinner and their vacuum was sitting out in plain view. Can I just say the number of times we heard the words "backum...please" repeated was in the hundreds I am sure. Collin definitely has a one track mind! He also calls the classic push popcorn popper toy (pictured) his vacuum. After I complete vacuuming, he generally will play with the unplugged unit for 20 min or so...

I also want to note how our vacuuming practices have changed--since Collin. Previously, I admittedly did not vacuum as much as I should. Well now, I swear I can vacuum daily (I don't...but...) and still hear constant tings of little pieces going up the pipe. I think most of it is food which either has tracked from the radius of his high chair, or stuck to his rear when exiting the high chair. And we even have a "landing pad" plastic table cloth under his high chair to catch all of this food, but somehow I still find it everywhere! And it's not that he actually throws the food that often (well, this week he has, but....not normally). Anyway, that in combination with the bits of tissue, etc means vacuuming is much more frequent these days--to Collin's delight.

In other news--chance of snow again tonight! ...ug....where is spring?? Lest you think I'm exaggerating...truly it is close to being record-breaking. http://www.thonline.com/article.cfm?id=193323. The second pic was the view out our window....for weeks. Although it has actually melted down quite a bit now, thankfully. Still piles, but not nearly so tall.

Right now Collin is also really into putting things in/out of containers--often called put/take or dump/fill play by developmentalists, etc. If you are not in sight you continuously hear pum, pum, pum, pum, pum, pum, pum....pause....pum, pum, pum, pum, pum, pum, pum...pause...repeat as he runs back and forth from container to container across the room. Clothespins are still definitely "in" along with playing cards, books, and anything else with lots of pieces he can relocate. I just love to watch/hear it! I think it's cute. Such a little busy-body!