Aunt Megan visits!

This past weekend, my sister Megan and her little guy Oscar came to visit us!!!!!! The trip was a much anticipated event at our house....in fact....the weather turned a bit nasty toward the end of the week and Andy was traveling. With the crazy weather, we were uncertain if he'd even make it home on Friday night. When I told the girls that there was a CHANCE that he'd not make it, their response was "But Aunt Megan WILL come right?!?!?!?" They adore her. By the way...Andy did make it home on time on Friday night and part of the entertainment that weekend was seeing all 4 Glynn children running from the supper table to the back door to greet Andy--Jayna spied the headlights in the driveway and they all bolted to welcome him in!

The above picture is of Megan, Oscar, and me before they left. Don't we look alike?!??!

The picture collage below is of Colin and Oscar in their matching pj's. The girls hovered over Megan and Oscar on Friday night (that is a mild description of their behavior!) and when Megan pulled out Oscar's jammies, the girls went nuts realizing that Colin had the same pair! Of course, it was a photo shoot meant to happen.

However, if you try to do a photo shoot at bedtime, you're usually guaranteed of no success. The photos we got were funny....you can see Colin checking Oscar out, pushing Oscar away and then smiling at him....yet still poking Oscar's leg! :) Cousin love!
Much more fun was to be had that night--the photo below captured the closeness of the girls and Megan--Ava just climbed up on a stool next to Megan and started playing a writing game and it was AUNT MEGAN who the girls requested to read their book before bed....all cozy on the "love couch" as Ava calls the loveseat! The lower right photo below is of Oscar and Colin watching Sesame Street together--they were zoned in on it, it was cute!

We had a big project on the agenda for the weekend--to create some fun bulletin boards for a room that we call "The Gallery"...it is where our computer is, where the girls' art table is....etc. I was in charge of getting the supplies: 4 bulletin boards, 4 yards of different fabric and coordinating ribbon, paint, and a glue gun. Then, Megan took it from there. The photo below is a collage of the craft fun: Ava playing "peek" when we made our dining room table bigger and the girls painting their bulletin board frames. Megan can even craft while holding a 1 yr old! That's pretty amazing!

While the frames dried, we switched gears: Megan and I took Ellie and Jayna roller skating while Andy watched the sleeping babes and Ava. Oh, did we ever have fun! It was Jayna's 1st time roller skating and we created a new "Aunt Megan tradition"...roller skating!

When we got home, they kicked it into high gear to finish our craft--below you can see my future ironer Ellie working on Colin's and her boards...
and then Jayna and Ava working on theirs. Let it be known.....Megan is one of the most patient crafters with kids. I personally think she should hire herself out for kids' birthday parties if her design career ever ends.

And the finished project:
(Yes, Ellie's eyes are red--she had been crying, partly over the end of the fun weekend....) As you can see, all the children are pretty excited about their new display boards and they are already semi-full of "art"....they only stopped putting things up because we have almost run out of push pins! The cream walls of "The Gallery" are so colorful now--it is just a really fun room!

And...as fun as the arrival is, there must be an end to all weekend visits...All of a sudden, Oscar just walked up to Ava and started hugging her. Well, you know that started a game (because none of the Glynn girls would go without a hug!)....and even Colin got into it. However, at first, he just walked up to Oscar and made a humming sound (perhaps a hug without touching?!) and then with Jayna's assistance, they finally hugged!
What a fun weekend.....we can now start thinking of what other crafts we need to get done or what rooms we might need painted for Aunt Megan's next visit! Either that or we'll have to start researching the roller rinks in Minnesota for OUR visit to them!

Christmas and more...

What a fun Christmas we had this year! We've enjoyed each day of the girls' vacation and the children have just engrossed themselves in playing with their new things! We had some Christmas laughs this year--Colin was VERY into opening gifts, but was quite a menace--we had to strap him in his chair to allow the gift opening to go smoother! We also got a laugh when, 3 days after Christmas, Ellie said "Mom...what is that bag under your bed?!" Oopps....THAT is where her last gift was stashed! It was fun to see the girls so excited to exchange gifts with each other, to be so thankful for each item opened--it was just heart warming.

The girls' school did a project this year---the children actually became published authors! We had let the girls believe we were not ordering the books, when in reality, we had arranged with their teachers to get the books to me "secretly" for Christmas. It was fun to see their reactions as they discovered their books under their stockings!

Above, you will see a collage of Ellie on Christmas day--she was very into the lip gloss she got, her new clothes, and her Packers lanyard for her YMCA card--now there is no excuse for losing that card in the swimming bag right?!

We got the family a wii this year for Christmas. Andy got it all set up the night before and we had 3 items wrapped for the girls to "discover" the gift. To see them open these items, click HERE. The wii continues to be a big hit--it's been fun for all of us! And Colin? He sits on the ground watching and cheers when the machine cheers!

Jayna was thrilled with EVERYTHING. She loved her American Girl tee shirt (middle photo), her play school toys, books and games. She just loves life!

Ava REALLY wanted a snow globe this year...and look at the bottom right photo--her very own snow globe...and it is a family of 6 outside a church! It is a prized "toy" by all...we've even caught Colin carrying it around (yikes!). She also REALLY loved her Super Why "Princess Presto" cape, tierra and wand (middle photo).

Colin....he is the proud owner of the "biggest little Hawkeye fan" shirt, more books and another magnetic fridge toy. As you can see by the lower right photo, he was REALLY enjoying a chocolate chip cookie fresh from the oven on Christmas day!

After opening gifts, we spied Ava snuggling her new horse, wearing her Princess Presto pieces and watching the Nutcracker on TV!

One of the things Ellie did this vacation was make almost all of our dinner on evening--we called it Meatloaf a la Ellie! She was very excited to mush the meat...and then decided it was VERY cold! It was delicious though! :)

On New Year's Eve, we all had ice cream sundaes with a variety of toppings. Colin didn't like the ice cream, so he enjoyed smarties. In case anyone is wondering....huge bowls of ice cream and smarties are not the best sleep aids for children....

As you will see on the left side photos below, the girls tried to have a sleep over in the pink room. We got them all situated, gave them "talk time" and then put them to bed....2 hours later when we went in to wake them up to see the ball drop, we couldn't find Ellie! She had moved from the floor next to Jayna onto Jayna's bed! After watching the ball, she went back into her bed and Jayna into her own bed! So much for the sleep over!

On New Year's Day, we enjoyed playing as a family in the YMCA's gymnastic's center and then had dinner with friends. The girls really got into dressing up (middle picture below) and we even had an impromptu 40th birthday celebration for Mike!! Happy Birthday this week, Mike!

Happy New Year to everyone!
Here are some fun short videos from our week:
Top: Ava dancing to the Nutcracker
Bottom: Colin dancing while being trapped in his seat