Grandmas and Grandpas

While I truly love being a mother, and I can honestly say that I try to cherish every moment, I still believe there is something that might be even better then motherhood. That something, of course, as the post title implies, is grand-motherhood. As my mom is fond of saying, grandparents get all the fun, give all the treats, do all the spoiling, and then get to return the grand kids when it's time for the boring, mundane, or difficult tasks like disciplining. Grandparents can give ice cream before dinner, and then chocolate cake after. They can buy that little something the kids just can't leave the grocery store without and never worry that the people behind them in line are going to judge them. They can buy lip gloss for two year olds, play with play dough on the carpet, and talk mommy into skipping naptime. And of course, grandparents get all of the bragging rights too. Nobody minds when they go on and on about how smart, beautiful, and good their grand babies are. In addition to all this, grandparents still manage to sleep through the night most nights, they rarely have to clean up potty accidents, their house doesn't unclean itself as fast as they can clean it, and they are even financially able to get everyone their own happy meal at McDonald's instead of sharing the value fries. In short, being a grandparent is the culmination of a successful life of child rearing, and we sure are grateful for those grandparents in our own lives, as well as our own parents who serve as the wonderful grandparents of our children. And speaking of grandparents, here are a few shots of recent visits with ours.

First, pictures at Grandma and Grandpa McArthur's house in Oklahoma.

While there we visited several different swimming pools and Mason got his first swimming experience. As the pictures show, he simply loved it! The other kids didn't seem to mind either.







We also hit the bounce house and the science museum while we were in town.





And we took a side trip down to Dallas to meet up with Greg and Michelle (currently living in Houston). While there, we had to make a stopover at the Dallas American Girl Store with Grandma. Maddi and Kenzie matched their dolls for the outing and had a wonderful time.





Spencer and Emma actually enjoyed themselves too,



even though Spencer eventually joined the "boys bench."



And here's another happy little tag-along. It's pretty amazing that we got a smile out of him considering we were at the store for well over TWO hours!



Other highlights of our trip:

just hanging out with Grandma,



and of course Spencer wouldn't pass up a chance to fish with Grandpa McArthur.



And now, some photos of Grandma and Grandpa Hoskins' recent visit. While they were in town we shot up to the twin cities for the weekend and stayed in a fancy water park hotel. The kids thought they had died and gone to heaven.











Kind of like Nick thought he had died and gone to heaven when he had a bite of his special Father's Day dessert. I've been working to perfect my Strawberry Shortcake Recipe (Nick's favorite) for several years now and I think I found an important new ingredient this time around: Orange Marmalade.



And here's a special shot we captured while they were in town: Three generations of Hoskins golfers. (Thanks Grandma and Grandpa Hoskins for splurging and getting Spence his own clubs! He thinks he is such a little man now!)