Week with Grandmas

It's Tuesday, October 9 and the Grandma's have been gone for 3 hours. The tv has been on for 4. It's raining outside, the internet is working and we have no where we need to be and no shopping we need to do.  Tomorrow I will work on cutting back the number of screen hours, but today it is useful for decompression from Grandma time.

   We had a great week. There was a lot of park time. Grandma Debbie even discovered a bird sanctuary at one of our favorite parks (Kenny calls it "snake park") so that was an added bonus. Lots of ipad time-Grandma's ipad ALWAYS trumps our own tablets. Lots of book reading with Grandma (either one). We asked that they bring some different books with them so I am super excited about that. (Our) kids do not get very excited about reading books on a kindle or tablet. When we get done they ask when we are going to read books.  And with as much screen time as they get, it's probably a good thing to do books the "old fashioned" way.
   Wednesday we visited a chocolate factory with our Israeli friends. REALLY glad the Grandmas were here for that. Apparently factory tours do not interest a 2 year old. Free chocolate does, though :)

 Bonus discovery: the train had a kids car with a little play area.

  Thursday I got to go grocery shopping alone. Friday I surpised Kenny for lunch, and bummed around in the train station alone (hello spiced pumpkin latte #2) while waiting for my hair appointment. Most expensive haircut of my life!
(I was going to put a picture right here, but it turns out I don't have a great shot of it. Stay tuned...)

 I do like it, and now that haircuts are on my radar I am seeing this cut everywhere, so I'm apparently trendy. I also found English magazines and an English section in a bookstore.

  Saturday Kenny and I (and Eli) took off for a day to Munich. This was supposed to be an overnight adventure, but it turns out it was Oktoberfest and finding a hotel room, in the words of the travel agent, was "hopeless."  More on Munich in a separate post, but here's a teaser: we got to sample the Pope's favorite beer. And in hindsight, I should have tried to buy some to send home for Brewgiving...shoot!
We took a trip to Santispark- a great indoor recreational facility- on Sunday, where we got to do indoor mini-golf.

 I've know about this place for about 5 weeks now, and I'm glad to finally check it out. We can bowl, mini-golf, play table tennis, and even swim. There is amazing water park with some fun looking slides. Now if they only had baby sitting for infants...Of course, it is (say it with me now) expensive, but for the occasional excursion, it is doable.
Monday was not rainy, but it was chilly so we headed to the Arena so I could do some pantry filling grocery shopping at Aldi's and the kids could ride some mall rides. Debbie picked up some (and by some, I mean A LOT) chocolate. Between my groceries and her chocolate, we had quite a load to haul and we just missed our last #10 bus for the afternoon that stops practically at our doorstep. On top of the hike from the bus stop, we also had to take the long, steep staircase to our house because of the road construction. (They appear ready to lay the asphalt, but of course it is raining and is supposed to rain all week.)
  Monday night we did our fondue at home, which I think turned out really well despite our lack of fondue pot. 
   So, we are Grandma-less. I think I'll resort to giving my kids this to drink

(it's water)