Easter Weekend

What a busy and fun weekend we had with G's family! 

But before I start I will talk about our precious puppy and Thursday night.  Wednesday night I was not watching her as I finally got to where I had to sleep in order to be able to get up for work.  Well, I found out on Thursday morning that she slept out of crate in the kitchen.  Needless to say, she loved that!  I knew that she had to learn to be crated to be overnight at G's sister's house and was I worried.  So Thursday night comes and I crate her and she starts crying and crying and crying.  I finally put her in the kitchen and shut the bedroom doors.  She still cried and cried.  So at almost 3:00 a.m. I took my pillow and a blanket and layed down on the kitchen floor with her crate next to me.  She whimpered a bit longer and finally fell asleep and slept the rest of the night.  Of course I know she can only make it about 2 hours between potty times as she is so little so I was bringing her out only at the 2 hour marks and then recrating her.  Well, we got up early and packed up and left.  I was worried sick that she would keep the whole household up all night crying.  She traveled so so good.  She was happy as can be in her crate or M or me holding her and then going happily back into her crate by M.  We stopped plenty so that she could potty. 

We got to our destination and she got to know the house a little bit and then their dog (who was at puppy day care:) came home.  They have a 98 pound New Foundland, and G was worried about their dog with ours.  I wasn't really as Jen has worked so hard with Mae, even having a personal trainer come in to work with them when she was a puppy.  She's very well behaved.  I was still worried about Jia sleeping the night, or actually her being awake and keeping everyone else awake all night.  They all loved our Jia and thought she was so cute.  I wish I could have gotten a picture of Jia and Mae.  I did video tape a lot.  Oh, so cute.  Mae was very gentle. 

Jen cooked us a ham and potatoes for the evening and we all ate there that evening and just spent the evening chatting together and catching up on things, enjoying being with family. 

We made it through the rest of the day and evening with only maybe one potty in the house.  Jen was fine with that.  She didn't mind at all as she has recently gone through that herself, except Jia's potty is only the size of a quarter...and she doesn't poo in the house at all.  G was staying up late with the boys so I asked him if he would keep Jia upstairs with him til he went to bed and I would go to bed earlier and sleep for awhile just in case she stayed up all night.  He brought her down in her crate maybe 2 a.m. and she just went to sleep.  I got her up once to take her out and she went right back to sleep.  Yes!  Our first night. 

On Saturday, G and his dad took Bee and went out and about second hand shopping and doing what they love to do.  Jen, M, and I went to the mall.  We got back from there and all hung out and relaxed and did whatever.  Saturday evening we went to a Chinese restaurant.  The 4 boys sat at one table and the rest of us (Irv, Jen, Grandpa Jack, G, myself, M and Bee) sat at another table.  James told us that they ordered $60 worth of Sushi for them.  We had plenty of food at our table too.  It was so good!  They are so sweet and good to us.  I have had a real hard time letting them do things for us, but a while back Jen talked to me and said that she wants to do it, they enjoy doing it and I should just accept it and say thank you.  She said that back when she was in need, she really appreciated when people helped her out and now she is able to do it and it makes her very happy to be able to.  And it does.  She loves to do things for us, especially the girls.

While we were eating, uncle Irv asked M about school and chatted for awhile.  He then asked her what is her hardest part of school.  She told him that she probably has the hardest time right now with math.  So they talked about that and then he told her that if she does her homework every evening until the end of the school year with a good attitude he would give her a prize.  He said she doesn't have to get all the answers right, she just has to have a good attitude every day.  She asked him what is a prize.  He said a present and he doesn't know what it is yet, but if she does her part, he can guarantee that it will be a very nice prize.  She thought that yes that was a good plan. 

Bee is sitting (well not sitting but twisting and turning and on her knees and backwards and being told 50 times by me to sit on her behind with her feet under the table) next to M and she starts telling uncle what she has a hard time with in school.  He gives her a big grin and says, "I don't think you have a hard time with anything in school this year."  She stops and looks at him.  He then grins and says, "I bet I know what you have a hard time with.  I bet you have a hard time sitting still."  She just looked at him and then grinned and said something like, "I do not."

It was so cute to see Jia during the day going to the door and scratching and whining that she wanted out.  She did this a couple of times when we didn't bring her out quick enough.  She did have a couple of accidents, but I was amazed that she was starting to let us know that she wanted out.  I was still worried that Jia would not sleep, but she did.  She slept so nicely all through the night, just getting me up to bring her to go potty. 

Sunday morning I was up pretty early.  I wanted to be able to get in the shower so as not to have to rush and wait in line for everyone else to be done.  Sunday we went to an exclusive Club to eat.  Irv and Jen invited their friends, Guy & Deana and little Giavanna. I didn't take my camera there cuz it's getting so old, but it's a really nice place.  We got to sit right next to the Easter bunny this year, so we got to watch all the little ones coming over to get their picture taken.  This is the 3rd year in a row that we've gone there with them.  There were 14 of us and I found out it's $30 per plate, so Irv had quite the bill.  But again, they love to be able to do that for all of us.  We had a good time there and ate too much. 

Here's the girls in their Easter finery with hair all done up by auntie Jen.

After we finished eating we headed back home to Irv and Jen's.  The girls rode with Deana and Gia and thought that was pretty cool.  Jia had been crated while we were gone and was already outside by the time I got back there. 

M holding Jia

This year Jonathan got to be in charge of filling the eggs and hiding them, with the help of Irv.  The 3 girls each had 10 eggs to find, each a certain color, the 4 boys each had one egg to find - a specific egg.  The girls were very good about not telling each other when they found an egg that wasn't theirs.  The girls each got 8 gold dollar coins and a bunch of other change and of course candy.  The boys got money in their egg.  I don't know what the other boys got, but James got $50 in his and an Easter card with $150 more!  While they were outside the Easter bunny had come and left baskets for the girls.  They got more candy and my girls each got a new complete bedding set for when their new bedrooms are finished.  Somebody's mama was excited about that!

The 3 girls (the other Gia in the middle) checking out what they got in their eggs.

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Gia with her mom (Jen's good friend)

Soon after the egg hunt we had to start packing up to leave back.  As we were almost ready to leave, Jen remembered that there was a piñata hanging in the front yard that had to be bonked down.  So the girls each had a chance to hit a few times and Jonathan took a turn and broke it open. More candy!!  Oh, we left for home with soooooo much candy! 

As we were saying our goodbyes I heard this awful noise like someone was driving down the street way too fast and I turned to look and heard and saw a crash, crash, crash of a motercycle crashing down and rolling and rolling.  The boy on it fell off after it tipped and rolled over him one time.  The cycle kept rolling landing finally in someone's driveway.  The boy got up and was holding his head and started walking away.  Jen ran over and then he came back and took the cycle but didn't do any cleanup.  The boy who lives in the house that it landed in front of cleaned up the mess.  He ended up with a garbage bag full of motorcycle pieces, and oily paper towel.  The rider of the cycle had just gotten it from his parents and brought it over to show.  He didn't have a helmet on, didn't have a permit to drive it, and didn't have insurance on it. 

Finally off we went towards home.  G drove the whole way down and I got to rest and even sleep a bit.  So I took the wheel first, til we needed to stop for gas.  I then sat in the back with the girls and played games and had fun with them til we dropped James off at his house.  Then I drove again to home.  The Easter bunny had come here too and you guessed it - more candy!  They didn't get as much candy here as usual though.  I finally got them off to bed and so our weekend comes to an end.