Monday, May 16, 2011

Gunner's Stay with Gumma & Gumpa

Before I start I want to thank Jodi was posting a Happy Birthday to our Mom. I totally forgot to put anything on the family blog to wish Mom Happy Birthday. But don't worry, I did call her personally on her birthday Saturday and wished her a happy birthday over the phone. Plus I did send her a birthday card. So I am not a totally lame daughter.

Now back to our regular scheduled blog post.

A couple of weeks ago our grandson Gunner came to stay with us for a few days while his parents (Mike's son Brandan & daughter in law Crystal) went to Vegas.

It was great fun having Gunner, but very tiring as well. Now I know why you should have kids while in your 20's. Much more stamina. But it is still fun being Grandma and Grandpa, better known as Gumma and Gumpa (as Gunner would call us).

Here is Gunner & Gumpa playing with the Marbleworks set. I bought 2 sets of these from Discovery Toys about 20 something years ago when my Brandon was a small boy.

He just loves playing with this every time he comes to our house. It's been the best toy investment.

On Saturday we took Gunner to the Western Science Center at Diamond Valley Lake in Hemet. This museum is the result of the artifacts they found while digging for the Diamond Valley Lake reservoir. Danica was working that Saturday as a volunteer for school credit. This was our first time to this museum. It was perfect for taking Gunner to.

Plus we got our own personal tour guide. Doesn't get much better than that!

This museum has some permanent exhibits including the Life on Earth Timeline, The Big Dam hole (and no, I am not swearing) it's where you can use interactives to learn about the people and animals that inhabited the Diamond Valley Lake site over time. And you can discover how scientists uncovered evidence of their existence. You can also watch 2 different movies in their really cool theater where you sit on fake rocks while watching a circular movie screen. And the big room called Snapshots in time.

Where you learn about the mammoths and mastodons that used to live in the Diamond Valley Lake area. And you can see some of their fossils as well as the bones of a huge giant sloth . Pretty cool. Who knew that such creatures once roamed the area around where Eric and my families live. Glad they are not here now.


They have lots of activities for the kids. Here is Danica helping Gunner use his crayon over an engraving to make a print of a giant sloth.

The kids could even make their own fossils. Here is Gumpa helping Gunner.

And we found out these are not Dinosaurs. Dinosaurs are something completely different. Who knew?

Most of my photos didn't turn out very good in here. I hate the way that photos with flash turned out and the most of the ones I took without flash came out blurry as Gunner never stands still for very long.


They also had a temporary exhibit of the cartoon "Peanuts". Mostly it was stuff about Charles Schultz and someone's collection of Peanuts memorabilia. It reminded me of being a kid since Charlie Brown & Snoopy was really popular when I was a kid.

And the museum had an area of cool puzzles and brain teasers to try out. Some where pretty hard. We were having so much fun playing in this area that I totally forgot to take photos.

So if you are ever in the Hemet area of California, you should check out this museum. It does cost money, but worth it for a few hours of fun education.

I think the most fun Gunner had while at our house was playing video games with my Brandon.

I think almost every waking moment was spent playing video games. Brandon even enjoyed playing with Gunner. And they were both very good at taking turns. Gunner had so much fun at our house that he hardly would take time to eat. He did like his french fries though.

I've posted a few videos below of Gunner while playing video games with Brandon. I thought they were so cute.

Gunner slept on our couch. He never did go to bed before 11:30pm. This kid doesn't like to stop. But once he did fall asleep he was out all night & woke up both days at about 10:15am. Which was the perfect schedule for us.

We thought we would have Gunner all day Sunday, but his parents showed up around 1:00 or so to pick him up.

He finally posed for a couple of photos before leaving. I could never get any good photos of him as he wouldn't stop for 2 seconds to take a photo.

I like this one of him out front of our house, but he closed his eyes as the sun was too bright. All in all it was a fun filled weekend. Can't wait to do it again. The only bad thing was that Gunner didn't really want to eat anything (too busy having fun). And boy is that kid stubborn. It's the Chalfant genes in him. Seems all the Chalfant men have quite the stubborn streak in them. Which made taking him into the grocery store right after he woke up from a nap a bad idea. He didn't want to go where I wanted, he'd drop anchor right where he was. And I ended up carrying him out of the store kicking & screaming as he didn't want to do what I wanted him to do.

Other than a little tantrum, the weekend was great. Can't wait to do it again. I love being a Gumma.

Kim




Sunday, May 15, 2011

Mom's Birthday

Yesterday May 14th was Mom's Birthday!!!

Mom on Easter


Andrea & Mom

Happy Birthday Mom!! LOVE YA!!

Thursday, May 12, 2011

Easter, Langston style

Ok, I know that I am late in posting about Easter. But I've been so busy aka: lazy.

Better late than never. Besides, you have seen most, if not all of these photos on facebook. Darn that facebook. It has taken all the fun out of blogging. Well almost.

Anyhoo, here is how the Langston side of the family celebrated this Easter. Well all the Langston's except for Todd's family. They were missing in action. We missed you Todd, and your family. Maybe next year.

We decided to have Easter this year at Mom and Dad's house. That way they didn't have to drive the hour and a half to either Eric or my house. Plus, I didn't have to clean my house for company. Woo hoo!

I had great plans to make some Easter decorations but I tend to procrastinate, plus I'm lazy, so I didn't get them made prior to going down to Mom and Dad's. So when I arrived, I roped Danica (Eric's oldest daughter) into helping me make the decorations.

Danica is helping me wrap the plastic utensils in orange napkins to make them look like carrots.

I helped too.
And this is how they turned out. Aren't they just too dang cute? I saw this idea in blogland and I had to copy. I don't have an original bone in my body. I just copy, copy, copy. But ours turned out cuter than the ones I saw online. Sorry, but the truth hurts sometimes.

I also made this cute "Hoppy Easter" banner at the last minute. Jodi helped me but cutting out the green circles with her "Cricut" machine. Thanks Jodi!

For dinner we had ham, cheese potatoes, corn, rolls, jello salad & tossed salad.

I made the cheese potatoes. But then I always do. It's the dish I have to make each year. Come rain or shine. But they are sooooo good. I had this huge dish plus another 9x13 pan. This pan was gone in a flash & about 1/4 of the 2nd pan. The Langston's love their cheese potatoes.

I brought the green plates to coordinate with my carrot utensils. Plus I brought the bunny candles and the planter of wheat grass. Jeannette made the tossed salads. Jodi did everything else. Andrea and Jamey brought ice cream cake for dessert but it disappeared faster than anyone could take a photo of it.

After dinner we all went outside to visit. It was pretty chilly outside that day.

Here is Dad, Danica, Brandon, Jeannette and me.

Noah gave a thumbs up to the get together. Brandon, Taylor & Michael in the background & Simon on the right.


Brandon doesn't like getting his photo taken, so he stuck out his tongue. I think Eric's kids are the only ones in our family who like getting their photos taken. They don't seem to make funny faces or hide their face like mine and Andrea's kids.


Dad, Danica and Brandon.

I forgot that Jodi had an Easter egg hunt for the kids. Here is Nate and Cade with some of the eggs they found. Are we ever too old for an Easter egg hunt? I don't think so.

Mom

Dad playing a game on his phone. His favorite past time.

Taylor and her hubby Michael as well as my son Brandon in the back yard looking for Easter eggs.


Cade in the house before dinner. He has that "let's hurry up and eat" look on his face.

Eric, Andrea, Mom on the swing. Jesse (my stepson) to the right. Eric said that he wanted to get a swing like this for his deck. Jodi was telling him he could have their extra one. That is, until Mom found out. She was like "Why are you giving away my stuff Jodi?". We all know who's boss, so Eric will be buying his own swing if he wants one for his deck now.

Danica.
Simon and Nate (Andrea's boys)

Most of the kids went out front to play with this flying disk that Nate is holding.

They had lots of fun and burnt up some pent up energy.

This is Jase (Eric's oldest son). He stayed in the house. Looks like he is already growing back the beard he shaved off for his friends wedding. He told me he was going to grow back his beard & let his hair get long again. He likes the homeless bum look. The rest of us, not so much.


Taylor and Michael. Ahhhhh, aren't they such a cute couple? Why yes, they are.

Before everyone left, I made everyone pose for photos.

Here is Andrea's family. Simon, Noah, Andrea, Jamey (only pic Jodi or I got of him) and Nate. I had to take a few before I got this semi serious one. Andrea's family goofs off the most when taking photos.

And speaking of Andrea's family. Can you believe that her oldest son Zak comes home from his mission in a about 7 months? Time is whizzing by now.

Eric's family: Michael, Taylor, Cade, Jeannette, Eric, Jase and Danica. It's nice that Eric's family has started to grow with Taylor marrying Michael last summer. Just think, we could be calling Eric Grandpa in a few years.

And my family: Jesse, Mike, me and Brandon.

I didn't take a photo of Mom, Dad and Jodi. I should have, but by this time, my family was ready to go. We still had to stop by my step son Brandan's apartment to see him, his wife Crystal and our grandon Gunner.

I'll try & post photos tomorrow of our Easter visit with Gunner. Plus I still need to post about our weekend of taking care of Gunner. I love being a Grandma. The best part is you get to spoil them and send them home when you get tired of them.

So what did your family do for Easter?

Kim