...to remember the weekends at my mom's

...we had such a nice time.

Life is very different for me (and the kids) when we go home.  And though I wish that things had worked out differently...they haven't.

I do know a few things:

• My parents are incredibly important to me.  
• They both adore my children.
• And it is so important to me that they spend time together.  

And...I endured the arduous trip back so the kids could spend time with both Papa and Mimi.  And we spent time with them at their respective homes.

While I was a little bit nervous about staying with my mom at her new home with Richard, we had a great weekend.

I knew right away, once again, the hard choice was the right decision.

Abbey with her Mimi

Kids love to be spoiled, loved, indulged, appreciated, and doted on enjoyed.  I think they were.

stickers

homemade ice-cream cookie sandwiches

more ice-cream

Olympic viewing

art projects

The kids enjoyed swimming at the neighbor's pool throughout the weekend:

On the second day my Mom and Richard were gullible brave enough to take the kids to the Battle Creek Zoo on their own.  I was fortunate sorry to miss this trip and instead spent the afternoon sitting at the coffee house by myself...missing my cherubs.

brushing and feeding the goats was one of the favorite activities of the day

abbey apparently needed a break

How cute!

My foursome.

On Sunday they took the kids fishing.  Everyone had a great time and the kids caught more fish than we could count.

the little one liked the sand as much as the fish

Richard must have baited the hooks more than fifty times.

Abbey was proud to have the biggest catch of the day.

The property surrounding these ponds was so lovely.

And unique:

I can only imagine how much fun the children who owned this treasure had on this slide!  There are three slides to race down...then, I imagine the end of the slide would vault them into the water.

There is a bucket attached to a rope to pull water up, to wet the slide...

it took the both of them a VERY long time to heave and hoist up only a 1/2 a bucket of water!

Isn't the view lovely?

Thank you Richard (and Mom) for such a lovely morning of fishing!

And for such a great weekend.