-Am setting background out so as not to dripfeed - some may be irrelevant-
My DS turns 2 next month. PIL are currently hosting 5 year old nephew from June-August, on his own - SIL and family live in another non-English speaking country. MIL flew to their home, stayed a week or two and brought DN back with her for the summer. It is DN's birthday 2 days before my sons. We have arranged to go down from a Mon-Weds, the Tues being DN's birthday and the Thurs (when we are at home) is DS' birthday. This arrangement came off the back of MIL saying a while ago (could be as long ago as Christmas) that we should go down in August as DN is over and she can put a party on for both DN and DS.
PIL live 150 miles from us and generally only see us if we travel down there and stay in a hotel or they are on a trip to our area, where we then have to travel to them and see them for the day.
MIL spends alot of time abroad with SIL and herself says it's never a holiday as she always helps SIL with little jobs around the village such as cleaning houses, looks after SILs children whilst SIL is out etc.
MIL sends parcels to SIL for things such as Easter - The country she lives in doesn not celebrate it - with gifts for the children. We have had one or two parcels in the past that have had a hand knitted garment but nothing really to note.
DS for christmas and his birthday got lovely gifts from MIL from Mothercare and ELC.
MIL's facebook at the moment is documenting DN's trip and there are daily updates as to what he is doing. Some are trips to the park etc but some are tacking him away for a week in this country, some are taking him to football matches (local kids ones, not proper ones).
Would you set your expectation of our trip as low so as not to be disappointed, or would you feel a bit if something isn't laid on/done? I know, for example, my Mum has bought DS a play kitchen and accessories and we are pkanning to have a little garden party (me, dh, dm, df and ds) on his birthday at her house, weather permitting.
It could just be that some GPs are closer to one set of GC than the other - My DS being closer to my parents as they live 5 mins away and he is there 3 days a week and the DN and DN being closer to PIL - I just am not sure what to expect and whether to be a bit cross if nothing is done to mark the joint birthday as was mentioned way back.
Sorry if my post is a bit rambly - trying to give all info, come across neutral and also not drip feed.