Tips for Riding in a Minivan with Grandparents

You’ll have to excuse my relative silence this past week. I had a busy weekend.

You see, a long time ago in the 70s my dad was a successful professional athlete. Don’t get too excited. I can’t tell you his name because my grandma is convinced that internet stalkers are alive and well. Plus, my dad’s success as an athlete is only impressive to a niche market of men aged 55 and older. Nobody else really cares (sorry, Dad!)

Anyhoo, he was so successful that he was awarded a street sign in his hometown, a mere 3 hours from where I live. So he and my mom flew in to spend the weekend with my family and then we all piled in a minivan and drove 6 hours round trip to see the street sign.

I learned a few things during the car ride with me, my husband, my two kids, and my mom and dad. Here’s my wisdom:

1. Make sure the DVD player is charged.

2. Make sure you have enough snacks for hungry kids AND hungry grandparents.

3. Definitely get the minivan model with as many climate control zones as possible.

4. Be prepared that not everyone will love their seat assignment and you will have to switch hourly. This makes the minivan with the captain’s chairs a MUST.

5. Make peace with the fact that someone will probably read aloud every road sign for 3 hours {Grandma!}, someone will yell and scream at his DSi game {Will!}, and men will tune out the world and talk sports forever {Chad and Grandpa!}

6. Have your 5-year-old sit next to a grandparent. This almost guarantees you a mini-vacation. I got to stare into space and rest my brain while Grandma got to listen to the singing dinosaurs on the DVD player and hear jokes that only a kindergartener could love. I feel so refreshed!

Have you gone on a road trip recently? What stories or tips can you share?

 

Image courtesy of digitalart / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

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The Killer Cat

I’m away from my computer this week, but that doesn’t mean the badness has to stop! Here, for your viewing enjoyment, is the riveting tale of what happens when the family pet goes BAD.

This movie was made by Will as part of Apple computer camp and features the kids, yours truly, and my husband.

Enjoy!

 

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He Got a Rock

I sense a theme!

Loyal readers know that I got some rocks for Mother’s Day from my daughter Sydney, age 5. I’m happy to report that my husband got a BIG rock for Father’s Day from Sydney!

In case you can’t see, she painted a rock and then a teacher wrote on it:

“My Dad Rocks!”

Awww.

Hope you and yours had a happy Father’s Day out there! What were some of the presents you gave or received this Father’s Day?

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Happy Anniversary…and May I Have a Refund?

Yesterday Chad and I celebrated our 17th wedding anniversary. Wow, that’s like a whole teenager ago!

To celebrate, we whipped out the wedding video and forced our kids to watch it. I’d heard from other couples that their kids LOVE to watch their wedding video.

Our kids tolerated it for about 5 minutes. Will wandered off to play with Legos and Sydney took a little nap.

Chad and I kept watching, fascinated by the 1994 fashions and obsessed with identifying all the people at our wedding who we no longer remember!

All of which led me to this question:
Is it too late to get a refund on the $700 I paid for the wedding video?!

At least I know not to fork over $25 and get the video converted to DVD. I think I’ll wait for the next big thing, say, 4D smell-o-vision virtual-reality technology. Or not!

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Do as I say, not as I do


Here are 2 examples of “Do as I say, not as I do!”

First, I got up from the couch to get something and when I returned Will had stretched out on the whole couch.

“Move,” I said.

“No” he replied.

“Excuse me?”

“You didn’t say ‘Please move’”.

Busted!

My second example is a guest post (ha!) by my hubby Chad. He jumped up from the kitchen table the other day when he realized the trash truck was on the street and he hadn’t taken the trash to the curb.

“Oh, sh**” he cried.

“Oh, sh**” repeated Sydney, all of two years old.

“Excuse me?” he questioned.

Uh, hello, Chad, she was only repeating you!

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