A BIG SURPRISE!!!
Our month of all the house guests is over! Sadness!
My snister Christina, her husband Will, and their son William, visited from Kansas City Thursday night through Monday afternoon <— how awesome they could stay for so long!
We didn’t have any big plans! We just wanted to spend time together. And eat. And get our nails done (Christina + me). And do a project or two (Steven + Will). And go to the petting zoo.
And that’s what we did! (Minus the petting zoo because the weather was crap the day we wanted to go, wah.)
There was lots of playing! Jen had brought over some toys that William loved. Thank you, Jen!
William likes the Porg! Until it makes noise, ha.
Having William visit pointed out how NOT toddler-friendly my house is! Lots of steps (the first floor has two levels) and lots of things at arm’s reach. We made it work, though! And no one was upset about it (except me feeling bad for making watching a toddler more difficult!).
There was playing with kitties! Khali mostly hid, Starbuck would hang but didn’t get too close to William, and Apollo was super chill with William.
Khali and Will are basically besties now.
A new hiding position – took us a while to find her there!
Being brave on the stairs
We ate!
Of course we went to El Famous. Um, twice. Which I’ll explain later. We made chili, dumpling soup, and got pizza (twice)! Oh yeah, and we got Taco Bell. Ha. FOOD, FOOD, FOOD!
We went trick-or-treating at the businesses in downtown Grayslake, the town where I teach and where Steven’s business is. It was fun to see all the costumes! And fun to run in to a few friends.
William as Alfalfa
We got our nails done! Christina got “CIA = Color Is Awesome” and I got “Toying with Trouble.” I’m jealous of her blue nails.
Steven and Will installed a camera in one of our attics to watch for critters. They also sealed a gap (with metal and wood) where the heating duct goes between our two big attics, to keep critters from going between the two spaces.
While Steven and Will were working in the attic on Saturday afternoon, Christina and I were inside hanging with William and we heard our driveway sensor go off. I wasn’t expecting a delivery so I looked at the camera to see who it was and saw a familiar red van and !!!BIG SURPRISE!!! my dad was walking out of it!
Mom and Dad knew Christina and family were visiting this weekend and decided to come out and surprise us! They’d been planning it all week and none of us had ANY idea! Mom was even saying thing on group texts like “Oh! I forgot this was your special weekend together.” Tricksters!
Me, Mom, and Christina
It was such a great surprise! We were having fun, and had even more with Mom and Dad there!
So we obviously had to go back to El Famous so Mom and Dad could enjoy it. They were even joking about stopping there on the way to our house. Ha!
We spent the rest of the weekend hanging out, watching some shows/movies, playing 5 Second Rule (yeah, I am a bit obsessed), and doing a bit of shopping (I scored a great deal on a new comforter aww yeah). Oh, yes, and eating, eating, eating! Mom brought delicious apple crisp!
Mom and Dad brought this fake cat. It was funny to see how the cats reacted!
Christina and I were still talking today about what a great surprise that was from Mom and Dad. It’s not often we all get to hang out, without something else going on to distract us. And it’s fun for me to get to host everyone… in our small cozy house, ha! (Our dream is to someday have a garage/workshop with a guest suite above it!)
And of course, we love having family and friends meet our babies!
Mom and Dad were able to stay until Monday afternoon too (yay!), and left when we took Christina, Will, and William back to the airport. Then, sadly, it was back to reality. Four days off with family was such a nice break (even though I accidentally checked work email once on the weekend and was dealing with some stupid issue at the end of the day yesterday, sigh).
Oh! And in case you were wondering from the pictures, yes, Christina is pregnant! She is having a boy in January! Yay, another nephew! That will probably be the next time I see her – when I get to meet him!
Themocracy
What is Five-Second Rule? I want to learn to play!
I love that your parents came to surprise you and you had such a fun weekend together! Your family is so sweet, and I can always tell how much you enjoy each other’s company.
…is your dad swinging William in a cat scratching toy??
It’s a “board” game I have (https://www.amazon.com/PlayMonster-SS-PLM-7428-5-Second-Rule/dp/B003BLQG6M) – it’s really just as stack of cards and a timer. You have to list three things in a category in under 5 seconds – like breeds of dogs, things you to do procrastinate, etc. But if you don’t get all three, it goes to the next person and they have to do it, but can’t say anything you did (like, if you said beagle for dog, they can’t list it). It’s super basic but ends up with lots of laughs because people get so flustered and say funny stuff!
I loved it too!
Ha! Yes he is!!!! Good eye!
Nathan absolutely loves MagnaTiles and we’ve been to that Jelly Belly factory a handful of times. Do you ever get the $5 bags of Belly Flops?
They’re so fun! The adults really liked building things and William really liked knocking them over!
I don’t! I usually get candy corn (since that is the only place I can find it without gelatin). My mom likes to get the Belly Flops!
Aww…how great you were all able to get together and what a great surprise that your parents came down! And congratulations to Christina and Will!
It was such a surprise!!!
I’m really excited for them. I can’t wait to meet him in January!
Aww, how wonderful! That was so nice of your parents to surprise you both like that! What a great weekend!
William has gotten SO big! That middle picture of him hugging the porg…*heart melts* Too precious. How exciting that he’s going to be a big brother in just a couple of months! I saw the family pictures you posted on Facebook and wondered if Christina and Will were expecting. Yay for more nephews!
Also, very important thing to share with you: last Thursday I was out in the suburbs, and I saw an El Famous Burrito! It definitely wasn’t *your* El Famous, because it was somewhere between the city and Downers Grove, but it was still *an* El Famous and made me think of you!
It was!!!
He has! And he’s really leaned out, now that he’s walking! I notice the changes in him a lot more since I don’t see him often. I love that Porg series. It was pretty funny when we made it talk though. That happy face went away, lol.
Ooooo! I think we’ve been to that one – it might be the original! Are you going to go next time?!
We had such a great time!! Wish we weren’t so far away and could get together more often… 🙁
Thank you for your hospitality! And it was a great bonus to have mom and dad show up too!!!
I wish we could too. It’s nice to be together just to hang, and not for something else, for so many days.
You’re welcome!!! We loved having you all!
That fake cat is pretty funny. The cats are being ultra cautious looking at it.
It cracks me up! But man, half the time I see it, I think it’s real!!!
How exciting for another nephew. I was wondering if you’d mentioned it and I just forgot.
Love how chill Apollo is! William is also so cute and getting so big.
I hadn’t! For some reason, lol.
I loved that too! I am glad at least one cat is.
Isn’t he though? <3
Looks like you had a really fun weekend with your family!
We did! Christina and I are still talking about how fun it was! LOL 🙂