Spending Time with Nana and Papa

While home it was really important to me that the kids (and I) spend time with our families.  Before scheduling any time with our friends I made sure to coordinate calendars with our parents to ensure that I didn't overbook us to the point where the kids didn't get to see their grandparents.  With Josh here for a few days, he took the kids to see his parents on the Cape (watch for his blog update sometime in the next century) and I plan to take them again at the end of this week.

We've also been spending time with my family.  Some of it has been little spurts here and there as we bound in and out of the house on all our US adventures.  But even those little bits have been quality time.  Just chilling on the couch with Papa or working on his model airplane.  Doing coloring with Nana and making cookies.  Every little bit they spend with our families is time well spent.

I've spent the better part of the last several years feeling guilty for taking the only grandchildren on both sides away from our parents.  Now mind you, our parents have NEVER made us feel this way, this is self inflected.  But it means that when we come home, it's uber important to me that they get this time together.

Our big adventure with my parents so far was a trip to Boston to the Children's Museum.  Both the Aquarium and the Children's Museum are two of Aidan's favorite places in Boston.  Liam once again, has limited memory of his time here and you would think he hadn't been to the museum at least a dozen times in his life but to him, it was all new.  His favorite (and one of Aidan's) was the 3 story climber.  It was great getting to see Liam actually able to climb pretty much to the top (or close to the top, it's when he realized how high he was and started to panic a little bit).  Another favorite of the boys was the bubble room and Arthur's world.  Liam, a lover of being the center of attention, loved being able to be on tv. 

A view of some of the Boston skyline

Nana, Papa and Liam

This milk bottle has been here since I was a kid!

Starting the 3 story climber

Liam realizing just how high he is...

But he kept going for a bit

Liam off for some adventure with Papa

Golf ball momentum fun

Liam liked having the balls going down the spiral

This just reaffirms our need to become fluent in Spanish... it's everywhere

Bubble room!

Bubble fun with Nana!

Fascinated!

Trying to put the bubble around himself...

Making huge bubbles!

Climbing ropes

Giant checkers

Peep from Peep and the Big Wide World

Sand fun with Nana

Building blocks and puppets, it doesn't get much better for Liam

Aidan's castle

I'm on tv!!!!!!

Aidan's on tv too!

You would thinking after puking 11 times on the flight here he'd be against flying but apparently not - he took charge of this plane!!!

Construction zone

Driving the bobcats

After a long morning at the museum we headed off to the Barking Crab for some yummy seafood goodness. One of Aidan's requests when we booked this trip home was for clam chowder. I think in his week back he's had it at least a half dozen times and has satisfied that craving for a while...

Nana and Papa

Aidan is annoyed here because he really wants to go to Attleboro to see his friends (whom at that point he hadn't seen yet) and I was a terrible mom and making him have a great seafood lunch...

I love New England...

Today each of the boys is going to spend some time with Nana and Papa - a little quality alone time.  I'm sure there will be updates later!

Besos,
Julie