Tell Cadbury about your shared moments of joy with grandparents - £265 voucher to be won! NOW CLOSED

[JustineBMumsnet]

Whether you spent every weekend with them, just saw them occasionally or had on on-the-phone relationship, grandparents are people who often bring back exciting memories from childhood as well as heartfelt moments in adult life - and with Grandparent’s Day coming up, Cadbury Dairy Milk Buttons would love to hear about them.

So, whether they’re of being taught how to bake, of sculpturing sandcastles at the seaside or intense games of scrabble, tell Cadbury Dairy Milk Buttons about the moments of joy you’ve shared with your grandparents or those you’ve witnessed your children share with your parents.

All those who post on the thread will be entered into a prize draw where one MNer will win a £265 Love2Shop voucher.

Thanks, and good luck with the prize draw!

MNHQ

We spent the whole summer with my maternal grandparents on the Isle of Wight. I loved picking blackberries and tomatoes with my Granddad in his garden. Then me, my Granddad and Grandma would play a word game in the night time.

My parents are awesome Grandparents and totally make up for the lack of fun my own Grandparents had with me. They are anxious to see my two children each and every time they can and are full of energy running around after them at their beck and call. My Dad is very insular and never shows emotion but with my Children he lights up and for me that is something really special. The day both my children were born were so memorable and a big part of that was the joy it brought to my parents and how obvious it was. My Son loves having a "sleep over at Gran and Paps" and is overjoyed (as am I) that his baby Sister is now able to go too and he helps Gran and Paps look after her.

Coming back to my Nan and Grandad's house after a night in the pub and her making me jam on toast even though it was really late in the night. Normally it would be too late for my mum to let me eat but my nan would let me.

I also remember making mince pies with her they were the best, I hate the shop bought ones now.

She also used to have these brass ornaments on the fire place that I would play with, they had this weird smell on them.

Another one, she used to collect tiny bottles of alcohol and put them in a cabinet and call them her "bottles of piss"

When we stayed with my grandparents, my grandma would set her alarm really really early in the morning and get up to play games with us. When I think about that now it reminds me of how much she did for us. I miss them.

My earliest memory is playing around with an aquamarine-coloured typewriter with my Grandad. I was about 3, and my mum says how proud he was of me. He died not long after, and I always wished we'd had more time together.

I loved staying with my Grandma and Grandpa - it was one of the best things about my childhood. I would 'help' them with their fruit and veg patch, play horses in the stable door shed and Grandpa would push me down the long garden in his wheelbarrow.

In the mornings I would wake up to the sound of wood pigeons and to this day the sound of them takes me back to those wonderful times and even just writing this I am welling up at the memories!

My Grandma will be 90 next year but my Grandpa sadly died aged just 60 when I was 12 - I still miss him.

I lived with my grandparents, not many moments of joy there.

My 2 youngest have just got in touch with their Granny, they love her silliness!

In the workshops of either of my grandads, learning woodwork. Both men of very few words, but that quiet time in the shadowy, dusty sheds, intent on our shared task was really special.

Whenever my Nan came to stay with us, she'd take us all down to Woolworths and treat us all (and herself) to a bag of Pic N Mix. When we'd finished ours, she'd sneakily give us bits out of hers. I think of her every time I see one of those sweetie mix things now

I remember my Granny letting me use her kitchen scissors to snip up big thick bacon rinds for the birds. They don't make bacon like that anymore.

I'm fortunate enough to still have my GPs around. As a child I would stay with my Nan sometimes and she would always let me have two breakfasts, a bowl of my favourite cereal whilst she cooked a hot breakfast. Utterly spoilt I loved it.

I only ever met my grandfather on my mums side (all other grandparents passed away before I was born).

He was with us until I was 11 and had a massive influence on me. he was a lovely man, smart, funny with a wicked sense of humor. I hope I'm like that when I'm 87!

Latest was nanny coming to stay for a week to help with school holiday childcare. My toddler was super shy at first because we live quite far apart and don't get together that often, but then twenty minutes later was running across the room, arms wide yelling 'Nannnnyyyyyyy!'

My paternal grandparents used to come and stay with us in the summer holidays to help with childcare and I always used to love baking with my Grandad especially his famous lemon drizzle cake with a crusty sugary drizzle top - yum! Making that cake even years after his passing still reminds me of those summer days baking with him.

Watching my son play with his toy tool kit next to his grandad using his real tool kit. Those little glances over to each other to check they are doing a good job. So cute :)

I used to love getting the bus into town with my nan, for the 'messages'. Always the top deck so she could smoke, and I always got a Woolworths pick n mix.

My Dad has just visited me & my DC today - a day full of fun & memories made with lunch out, a walk in the park, and play time at home!

All of my Grandparents have passed away but I have fond memories of my Nanna staying over at ours (snoring like a I'd never heard before!) and going to my Grandad's for Sunday dinner

We used to go on holiday with my grandparents. Grandad would sing for the whole drive down to Cornwall, Nanny would have the biggest bag of Woolworth's' pick and mix ever seen, and we'd race to be the first to shout "I can see the sea!".
Pure joy. I adored my grandparents.

Endless amazing walks along country lanes wild flower spotting, we had so many books to help us. This experience was priceless. I now well up with fond memories and flower names when ever I (rarely) drive along or walk along a country lane.

My Grandma lived through two world wars and worked on the land all her life. I can remember her taking me into the chicken shed where the eggs were incubating . She placed a slightly cracked egg in my hand and we watched in silence as a little chick pecked its way into the world. When the little bird had hatched my Grandma told me that I would now have a special bond with the little creature because I was the first living thing that it saw. When each of my children were born, I remembered that moment and realised Grandma had given me a lesson in love.

My grandparents were a very diverse range of people with a common gift of abundance of love. My maternal grandparents were traditional hard working living a bit hand to mouth, large family but everyone well fed, clothed, clean and loved. They had over fifty grand children yet each of us felt a little bit their favorite. They took a keen interest in what we were interested in and encouraged our individuality. My granny cooked the best roast dinner with veg on the hob when she got up in the morning. Grandad grew his veg at the bottom of the garden and her brussel sprouts would fall apart and she'd mash in a bit of stock from the rested meat and some black pepper. The lounge was always hot and filled with people. Grandad, much to my delight and mothers disgust, taught me how to place a bet.

My other grandparents were rather affluent, very little extended family, collectively a little stiff upper lip. My granny would occassionally tell stories of her very affluent childhood in exotic climbs and her cultural shock of Europe before moving to UK in the early war. My Grandfather I barely knew until teenage years. We sailed together and had a mutual voyage of discovery of doing things like operating a washing machine, cooking basic dishes, visiting supermarkets and stocking the cupboards, things that he'd never done until his late70's.

We used to sit on the bench on Granda's allotment eating tomatoes from his plants and drinking lemonade. Then he would fish out a Fruit and Nut from his pocket and we would share it. Nothing ever tasted so good.

My grandad taught me to swim. He would take me to the beach, and take me out beyond the breaking waves to where the swell just lifted me up and put me down again. I floated without realising.

But one of my most precious memories of my grandad is that he made the 5hr flight in his 80s to come and see newborn dc1. The look of total communion with his first great-grandchild, his happiness, his peace will remain with me forever.

My late grandmother grew raspberries and strawberries in her garden. Every time I eat them, they remind me of her.

I remember my Nanna making me cheese on toast- using a massive wedge of bread she had sliced off herself. I remember my grandad making massive pots of mushy peas and teaching me how to cook.

When I was older, I used to take them shopping every week and we would look at the weekly offers sheet for Safeway before going! I would keep a running total in my head all the way round then "guess" the cost at the end- Nanna was always so impressed, I don't think she realised it was an educated guess!