Nan and Poppa visit

WAY back at the beginning of March, Nan and Poppa came up for a visit just prior to Maura's birthday. My kids were so thrilled!! It was as if they were getting a visit from a huge celebrity! We waited to tell them until about a half hour prior to Nan and Poppa's arrival, so we only had to deal with the "When are they going to get here," questions for a short period of time. The kids were practically running in circles by the time they arrived! These are some happy kids...and happy grandparents too. The kids know that when Nan and Poppa show up, it's non-stop playtime!! On this occasion, they came bearing gifts, which only added to the general hysteria!

Maura loved receiving her very first birthday gifts...the first of many!

Nan and Poppa couldn't get over how big Bennett had gotten. The last time they had seen him, he was just a layabout baby, and now he was sitting and starting to crawl! He gave them lots of smiles and made sure to charm their socks off.

Tristan and Poppa had an awesome time playing football. Tristan is a ball lovin' boy and he can tackle HARD! You don't want to be on the receiving end of one of his tackles!! Tristan absolutely loves his Poppa. Brent sings him a song every single night that involves Tristan and Poppa riding a big green tractor. The kids had so much fun playing with Nan too--pretending to hide in the block box and pop out to scare everyone.

We had so much fun with Nan and Poppa and were sad to bid them farewell, but we'll be seeing them again in just a few days when we go down over Spring Break. Glad I got these posted before we left!!

Just a day earlier, we celebrated Backwards Day. No, this is not an official holiday, it was born out of my kids' desire to eat dessert for breakfast. I promised the kids that the very next day(March 4th) we would do backwards day. We woke up, put our clothes on backwards and then proceeded to eat dinner, complete with dessert for breakfast. The kids LOVED it. We went on to have breakfast for supper and they had an awesome day. I, on the other hand, did not...

For this was the day that my beautiful van got smashed. I left the kids with Mom right after breakfast to go look at some schools for next year. I was minding my own business and driving back home when a man came out of nowhere, turning left onto the main road. He hit me broadside and shook me all around the car. The side impact airbags deployed and everything. It was incredibly scary and I think I freaked Brent out when I called him to let him know I'd been in an accident. He left school almost immediately even though I assured him that I wasn't hurt, and it was good to have him around! The photos of the van don't really do it justice. The impact affected the front quarter panel, both doors, the rear quarter panel, the wheel and the tire, as well as the airbag--a little more than $13,000 in damages. Whew! The car is STILL in the shop and will be for the foreseeable future. So much for my backwards day--I'd like to hit the rewind button please!!! In the meantime, we're driving a substandard American made product and dreaming of the day our sweet ride will be returned to us!!! We love you, Dear Sienna!!