After several of our grandchildren visited during spring break, I find my heart to be overjoyed that they were here and overjoyed they are gone.

While I consider these tiny, and not so tiny, souls to be our greatest blessings, I also find they come with challenges.

Our oldest grandson Liam, 11, came on Sunday and by Monday, I was getting emails from our Internet provider that we had exceeded our monthly plan limit for data usage of 5 gigabytes.

When the younger boys get to see their older cousin, they are always climbing all over him and Liam absolutely loves it. They are special together.

Daughter Jamie came with two toddlers and baby Brantley (7 months) to spend a few days with us. Following is a snippit of some of our conversations.

 Me: “Jamie, have you seen my nail polish? I had it right here last night.”

Jamie: “Here it is; I found it in my coffee. And, that’s the third thing I found in my coffee this morning.”

Overheard from my bedroom —

Jamie: “Langston (who will be 4 in June), don’t hit your brother. We don’t hit. Langston, DO NOT HIT YOUR BROTHER.”

Jamie (in her stern mother’s voice): “Riverson (who will be 3 in October), stop throwing money into the dogs’ pen. Riverson, I said stop it. (Pause) Riverson, don’t do that.”

Jamie (in her angry, high-pitched and stern mother’s voice): “Riverson, no, no, no. Stop getting into everything. Stop it.” That was in my bathroom as Jamie was getting out of the shower. He had gotten into my mineral makeup and spread it around the vanity — big mess.

Liam did his best to provide his own version of an amusement park for his younger cousins. Langston looks a little apprehensive in this picture but only moments later he was laughing to the max as his cousin pushed him all over the yard.

The boys’ perception of time and time to play seemed to be askew as well. I found them standing in the dark at 6:15 AM ready to play. Are you kidding me? I said, “Boys, the sun isn’t even up. It’s not time to get out of bed.” And when I said, “We have to go back and lay down,” I met strong resistance. With minimal cooperation I finally lost the battle and had to get up with them. Any other time, my instruction to “Go get mommy,” would be taken up with joy. But not that morning. No, they were happy enough to be with MeMe.

 Very few things are in the same place in my house as when the tiny tots arrived this week. They love to touch things, experiment with them and carry them around. For example, I suspect I won’t find the TV remotes for several weeks. But on the bright side of that, at least they weren’t dropped into someone’s coffee.

As I was getting ready for work Thursday and applying my makeup, I found that Riverson hadn’t JUST spread makeup across the vanity. As I used my blush brush to make my cheeks pretty and pink, I discovered Riverson had also used that brush and pink was not the color on my face after using it. My cheeks were dark brown.

Riverson is eating a corn dog. He would carry food around all the time if we let him. He’s watching his brother and cousin play while he holds up the shovel for the sand box.

Capturing memories like this make all the effort worthwhile. See the pure joy on his face. Yep, definitely worth it.

We had lots of fun, all of us together. We went to the Frank Buck Zoo in Gainesville, took the older grandson to a couple of movies and spent quality time outside on the swings, playing baseball, digging in the sand box, riding bikes and making memories.

 We love for them to visit and we love to see them go. I understand now why God designed us to have children when we’re young.