Visit from the folks

So I know were like supposed to post stuff that happens during the current week but I wanted to post some stuff about my parent's visit a couple of weeks ago - so sorry for the backwards time travel. It was good to have them here. My favorite thing we did was planting flowers on my back deck/porch/patio area place (I don't know what to call it) I've never had flowers of my own that actually lasted longer than 3 days - and my parents love to plant flowers and they know a lot more about it than I do. I was grateful for their expertise. They also bought us this great patio umbrella so that me and the kids can play out there in the sunshine without having to actually be in the heat of it. So now I love my patio and it's because of the bright beautiful flowers and the cool umbrella that I've been wanting for like forever.

We went to the Children's Museum for a day while they were here and that was a lot of fun. I definitely feel like a kid when I'm there - and I just want to get down and play with whatever Talen is playing with - I ride the scooters with him - and I paint with him and play in the water with him -MyI dad kept rolling his eyes at me because I was wanting to do everything that Talen was doing - I thought that was funny - All I could think to say was, "your just jealous."

We also went to Maymont for a day and I think I burned about a gazillion calories that day walking the 100 acre Park. We went to the petting zoo and then walked through all the gardens and then took a tour of the Maymont house - which I have to say was not the best activity to take a almost two - year old to who was on the verge of having a pure exhaustion melt down due to his lack of nap - which I'm sure we can all relate to - it was quite boring for him - he kept laying on the floor of whatever room was currently being toured - wouldn't recommend it unless earlier in the day - but even then I probably wouldn't recommend it - no strollers allowed or food -talk about a double negative - you want me to hold my 2 year old and my 4 month old and keep them both happy listening some boring blabber - and I can't bring them food to keep them quiet? Not a kid friendly kind of activity. We also went to the Lewis Ginter Botanical Gardens - which I have to admit was pretty awesome. I was not the most enthusiastic about it - when my mom kept bringing it up - but I'm actually glad we went - it was beautiful - their cafe had really good food - and the children's garden was super fun. So thanks mom, for suggesting it - I'm sure we'll back to it later this summer.

Every night while my parents were here they helped us put Talen and Kendal to bed - which I think was some of the sweeter times of the visit. It seems during the day that I can never find time to read to Talen or Kendal - for some reason I find it more important to do dishes and fold laundry and clean rooms and make beds and I think I need to stop and remember that I will never have these years again with him or her and to remind myself that chores can wait and that spending quality time of just sitting down on the floor and playing and reading books will be of great value to me and to my kids. The reason I brought this up is because at night time before bed we always read to Talen for sometimes 30 minutes and let him pick out the books and I just love this part of my day because he loves books and loves picking books and he's so animated and completely adorable when he gets read to - it's like he's absorbing it all and it's like the books are helping him to make sense of the world. This photo was taken the last night they were here and I know that this reading time they spent with him was special and I'm glad they were able to do it. Overall we had a great time and I'm glad they got to see my new haven here in a place that I have grown to love.