When Oma And Opa Come To Visit...

Last weekend my parents came for a quick visit. They saw Come From Away in Toronto on Thursday night so we let the kids watch the Raptors game and wait for Oma and Opa to arrive. They showed up at 11:15, just as the game was ending.

Friday was a PD Day which meant the kids had the day off school. (And that was also why I didn't care if they were up late the night before.) It was a beautiful day. Opa played a game outside with Sam and Rachel.

I thought our yard was in pretty good shape before, but Mom and Dad always find ways to make things look better!

This was after Dave had done a ton of work, too :) However, our raised beds look way better and the weeds are gone from pretty much the whole area. Since this is Dave's part of the yard to deal with, he was so happy for all the help.

After that it was time for "happy drinks" for everyone. We've had so much rain here lately it was completely awesome to get three sunny days in a row and we spent a ton of time outside.

Since my mom and Rachel both have birthdays in June, Mom and Dad took us out for a special birthday dinner. Rachel got to order anything she wanted and the restaurant brought Mom and Rachel these HUGE desserts. Plus they sang Happy Birthday. Rachel LOVED it all!

We'd been realizing for awhile that our lawn mower was not the best so we invested in a new one. It works so much better and Rachel liked testing it out.

Whenever Mom and Dad come to visit, somehow a "project" always happens. Since we spent so much time in the backyard we dreamed up a BIG project for next spring (Maybe. Hopefully!!!). However, Dave and I have known for awhile that our railing at the back door is unsafe. See how it's rusted through. Two of the three supports were barely hanging on.

With this potential project possibly happening next spring, it didn't make sense to do a big fix of this railing but Dad thought of a way to do a temporary fix. So Rachel, Dad, and I headed off to Home Depot for supplies.

 Dad was super eager to get to work so by Saturday night, all three support posts were installed.

Then Rachel and Opa built the railing part.

There was some tricky sawing so I was holding the old railing as far away as possible, Dave was holding the support post, Dad was sawing, the sawdust was flying, and Rachel was taking pictures!

Rachel loved "helping" with this project. She keeps talking about "the railing I built with Opa." Ha!

Dave contributed some sanding expertise.

The old railing was way too easy to remove. My dad said, except for one support, he basically just picked it up. Did I mention it was very unsafe? He got out a special grinder tool to grind off the last little piece and then ground all the screws down to the cement.

Rachel and Opa with the new railing. We LOVE it!

Monday was a blur of ball and soccer and on Tuesday, Mom and Dad accompanied Sam on a field trip. His teacher was desperate for volunteers and they agreed to go along. It was an all day field trip and I think it was a bit of trial by fire. 

We ended the day (and Mom and Dad's visit) on the best note though! We had a Low Country Boil and invited Mom and Dad's good friends to join us. It was delicious and we all LOVED it.

We're so happy Oma and Opa came to see us and we're excited to see them in Saskatchewan this summer. Whooo hooo!!! Maybe we'll be able to help them with some house projects. Hahaha!!!