fun at nanny and paw paw's!

when we moved from virginia, my parents kindly offered to come up and drive the boys back to texas for a two week holiday at their house.

of course, we said something along the lines of "sure. take them." and off they went happily :)

below, is all the great fun they had at nanny and paw paw's! :)

my parents have a big orchard and luckily the plums were just ripe enough to pick and eat!

throwing a bad plum to the beloved chickens...

...and enjoying the fresh!

my mom used to be a librarian so there is reading every day, of course!

...even when jack sneaks out...

he still gets the afternoon treat ;)

egg collecting is a twice daily privilege.

my dad caught this milk snake a couple weeks before they got there and the boys got to catch lizards and crickets to feed it.  

and don't worry, they released it at the end of the holiday :)

there was swimming and watermelon...

and "chores"...

and coloring...

and window gazing.

on the really hot and/or rainy days, they got to splash in the pool in nanny's greenhouse...

and build a huge igloo out of these old styrofoam blocks that my dad had saved for years.

pretty cool, if i do say so myself!

my parents planted grapes from their balcony and the boys gorged themselves on tiny, sweet grapes every day :)

there were morning walks in pjs...

and a surprise trip to the zoo!

and they even made me a pretty birthday present!

floating, glass fish from my parents' recent trip to venice!

and a mv-decorated birthday cake and fresh-cut flowers :)

when mike and i arrived, we went fishing in a dear friend's pond...

and mike got to join the fun and do tractor rides every day!

the figs ripened just as we were leaving.

they went from a few to pluck a day...

to tons, overnight!

and on our last night, we got to celebrate paw paw's birthday with homemade key lime pie!

we even got to see my grandmother, "gaumy" and enjoy her for a few days!

a wonderful trip and hopefully many more to come!!