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For Memorial Day, we had some last minute visitors from afar - Aunt Caroline and Uncle Charles. They joined all the Maryland family at Grams’s house.

After a delicious meal, we made sure to get a few pictures.

My paternal grandmother, Grammy, lives in two different places. When it’s warm, she lives in Highlands, NC. We’ve visited her there a couple of times. When it’s cooler, she lives in Clemson, SC. We’ve wanted to visit her there, but it can be really hard to find a good time to make that trip when the kids aren’t on summer vacation. This year we made it happen, making the trip during the girls’ spring break.

We drove down on Saturday, leaving first thing in the morning and arriving at bed time. We woke up the next morning and went to church on Palm Sunday with Grammy and her friend Caroline. After church, we had a lovely lunch at the dining room in her community.

After lunch, we headed back to Grammy’s place, where she was ready to entertain the girls. Grammy was a first grade teacher, and was ready with crafts for the girls on our visit. She blew out 18 eggs so they could decorate them for Easter. The drawing was done on the porch.

The egg dying station was in the kitchen. Grammy and Leah got it set up to dye.

Molly worked hard on her BB-8 egg.

That blue looks good.

The three of them spent an hour and a half intently working on their eggs.

Here are the eggs they made. Several of these have a Star Wars theme (BB-8, R2-D2, C-3PO, Rey, and Kylo’s light saber), while the rest had more traditional Easter themes.

After all the egg fun, we played some games (we brought Otrio and Telestrations with us). Then we went to Zaxby’s for dinner (we had to go to Zaxby’s while down south).

Monday morning, arts supplies came out. Grammy and the girls had lots of fun before even getting dressed.

We played some more games (we love games). We hit McAlister’s for lunch, then went to see Beauty and the Beast at the movie theater. For dinner, we headed down to College Avenue right next to Clemson’s campus to eat some delicious pasta at Brioso Fresh Pasta. We spent the night, then woke up early to head out to the next stop in our spring break adventure (more on that later).

Thanks for having us, Grammy!

A couple days after her real birthday, the celebrations continued. Molly opened presents from G’Mom and Grampa, including a couple of games. The first was Otrio, a strategy game that is kind of a multidimensional tic-tac-toe. It’s lots of fun, and we play it a lot.

The other game G’Mom and Grampa gave Molly was Telestrations. It’s a cross between Pictionary and telephone, where you pass a word around the circle by alternating between writing it and drawing it. The results can be quite hilarious, as you’ll see from these few pictures of us playing it.

It’s important to stick out your tongue when you draw.

As I said, this game can lead to hilarity.

Jen’s lost it.

Here are a couple of examples of why Jen can’t keep it together. In the first example, I got the word “microscope” and passed that to Leah to draw.

Leah confused microscope and stethoscope, and drew this.

Which was interpreted to be “legs”.

A second example - Jen got the word “frog”.

Leah drew this, a frog on a lily pad.

I thought the frog on a lily pad looked like a cat on a surfboard. So, I wrote “surf cat” (the obvious answer, I know ;).

It’s a really fun game. I highly recommend it.

We again attended Bingo night hosted by the girls’ school, and G’Mom and Grampa joined us as they were in town. They were actually in town the weekend before as well, then left to visit friends for the week before returning to spend the weekend with us again. They couldn’t miss Bingo, after all.

Grampa won one of the rounds, and received some VR goggles as a prize.

Shortly after Grampa won Bingo, Jen got picked for one of the door prizes - a Target gift card.

It was a lot of fun. Afterward, Leah and Molly were excited to try out the VR goggles. It was late, of course, but they played with them a bunch the next morning.

Since his birthday is on New Year’s Eve, Grampa was in town for his birthday. Jen made Grampa a chocolate lava cake to celebrate his birthday.

Happy birthday, Grampa!

Christmas kept going with G’Mom and Grampa in town. That meant more presents.

Jen got G’Mom and Grampa mugs from Greenbridge Pottery, which were sold to aid the recovery of a coffee shop that had been flooded in old Ellicott City.

Leah looks happy to get this Roominate.

Three days after Christmas, G’Mom and Grampa arrived to continue the fun. Jen came up with a fun activity to do when they were in town. We made the trip down to Tyson’s Corner to go to the American Girl store. The girls were quite excited. They both had a bunch of gift cards they had been saving up for some time, and it was time to spend them.

Here they are with a couple of their chosen items.

This place seems to inspire joy in these girls.

Here they are with bags full of fun in front of the store’s Christmas tree.

After opening presents at our house, we headed to Grams’s house to keep celebrating. First we ate breakfast, then it was time to open some more presents. As youngest, Charlie of course went first.

And he got a bit of snuggling time with Grams.

These are American Girl pajamas, and the girls got matching sets for their dolls.

A present so big it needed a bag.

Jen made Charlie a dump truck pillow.

Charlie immediately needed to test out the pillow.

Jen says Yay for a tray.

Jen made Grams tea towels. They have a Southern theme, including a fleur-de-lis.

Charlie is studying this elephant ball popper intently.

Leah was very excited about these Princess Ponies books, especially since they each include a charm for a bracelet.

Grammy had quite the haul of Christmas presents as well.

Molly got the entire set of The Kane Chronicles by Rick Riordan. She’s already read the entire Percy Jackson & the Olympians series and The Heroes of Olympus series by him, so she was excited to read this new series. She was so excited that she started reading in the middle of opening presents, no longer interested in what she might get.

Jen created an LSU-themed fleur-de-lis for this insulated tumbler for Aunt EA.

Sometimes, the box is the most fun toy - even for the oldest of the children.

Charlie came to visit Molly in her box.

It was so much fun to celebrate with everyone.