Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Children's Garden with the Grandparents

I like my in-laws. I really do. They can be very annoying and very opinionated at times, but that is just who they are. I truly believe that our children need to be raised with the opportunity to have a relationship with their grandparents, even if Bill and I don't always see eye to eye with them.

They live over an hour away, are retired (my mother-in-law will turn 80 in November) and we see them maybe 2 times a month if that. Usually, it is easier if they come visit us...since it is hard to pack the 3 kids up for the full day that would be a visit and their house is NOT childproof at all!

Well yesterday, was one of those days. Alot of times they come up, will bring KFC for lunch and we will just sit around the house and talk. Well, I wanted to do something a little different so I suggested that we get lunch (NOT KFC!) and go eat at the Children's Garden. My mother-in-law agreed that that was a great idea! (Surprises do happen! Bill was certain she wouldn't want to do it!)

So we packed everyone up and headed out. Bill and Rebecca went with his Mom and Stepdad to Burger King to pick up lunch and the boys and I went to the Children's Garden to snag a picnic table.

It turned out to be a really nice afternoon with beautiful sunshine and a nice breeze....
 
The kids loved playing on the train. Benjamin even climbed up onto it for the first time. (It was also the first time he ever climbed up onto something, which means I need to figure out a way to block our stairs....)



We took lots and lots of pictures...



I even taught my in-laws how to use the timer function on their camera so everyone could be in the picture.

We saw LOTS of butterflies and some birds. The kids and my in-laws found a toad in one of the ponds.


Rebecca wanted to be the photographer so I handed over the camera and she took lots of photos of beautiful flowers.


Overall, it was a very nice afternoon spent with my family and my in-laws.

Do you get along with your in-laws? Do you do anything special with them?

3 comments:

  1. What a lovely afternoon!!!

    In-laws....hmmm. It is just my mother in law now (father in law passed away 4 years ago). It isn't that I don't get along with her...she just has very little to do with us. She is too busy with her own life. And my brother in law (and his wife)....they haven't acknowledged us in 5 years.

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    1. Yeah, well for us it is only my mother-in-law and father-in-law that we see. My brother in law lives a state away and we have seen him 4 times in 8 years. We get along just fine, he is just happy with his life, etc. My sister-in-law and brother in law are a different story. We see them maybe 1 time a year during a tense, no one really wants to be here sort of gathering. We are the black sheep of the family as we don't own our home, we don't make a lot of money, we have debt, oh and we have 3 kids versus one. That is life.

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  2. I do not always get along with my mother-in-law, so bravo to you for making such an effort! It looks like it was a great outing!

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