New to this Community seeking advice

[MichelleLT]

Well, not necessarily anything wrong with that.

I would have chosen something a little more casual to break the ice with personally lol. But it was a polite conversation and mostly dealing with the kids, so it's hard to find anything wrong with that, other than W or MIL may perceive that as manipulative. MIL probably feels like you put her in the middle a little bit, and you may want to apologize for that - say it wasn't your intent, you shouldn't have asked her advice, then switch to a chatty subject and then get off the phone.

But of course, after all these years, you know MIL and W's personalities, and how they are likely to react to things. So you do what you know will get you the best result.

Have a good time with your kids regardless of everything else! I'm sure you all with have a blast!