My sister Heather and her 7 wonderful children came for a whirlwind week of family fun!
Egads, it was
fantastic.
The last time I saw my sister in person was when she stayed with us for a week to help out our family when Crew was in the NICU. The cousins, however, haven't seen each other since the summer of 2008. Do the math, that's
four years; they know each other only through vague memories, blogs, letters, and mommy gossip. But that didn't stop them from having the time of their lives! We played hard for 9 amazing days. How have we waited so long to do this??? Never. again.
Heather and I didn't get along very well when we were growing up (ok, that's a gross understatement that just made my parents raise their eyebrows), so it continues to surprise us how perfectly well we get along today and how eerily similar we are in temperament and parenting style.
To Justin's mortification, we were equally neurotic about photographically documenting every blessed minute of our adventures.
For this first installment of photos: the Homefront Fun.
The kids played and played and played
and played.
Friendships blossomed.
Two little pen pal princesses discovered that they love each other just as much in person as they do through letters. (Honestly, Anna and Kinley are practically the same person in letters. Same writing voice, same interests. I laugh so hard whenever I am reading them because you can't distinguish one personality from the other!)
With a house full of guests (who all love Aunt Megan's
food), I was never without assistance in the kitchen -- or anywhere else. Justin's only complaint was the backed up tower of rinsed dishes that were always waiting to be run through the dishwasher. But as Heather said, "You know, we've pretty much been living like the Duggars for the last week and the Duggars have, like,
3 dishwashers. So I think we're doing pretty well!" Amen to that! It was so awesome to have so many capable and willing kitchen helpers. One morning, 12-year old Julian made 45 pumpkin pancakes all by himself. We ran a smoooooooth operation and many hands made light work! Justin couldn't believe that our house was tidier with 13 people living in it than it is when it's just the 5 of us. (I wasn't surprised. Have you
met my sister?)
Amber and Annabelle even volunteered to take a turn at our family's crappiest job. Ahem.
The kids played hours
upon hours of board/card games...
Tanner found willing competitors to play
all the Wii games he wanted.
Pinging
and ponging.
Crew found lots (and
lots) of snuggles. He enthusiastically welcomed his cousins and Auntie Heather into the family fold. He was angelically well behaved for all but 25 demonic minutes of their visit. He was much beloved by his fawning cousins... and aunt.
Happy, tired kids and a good night's sleep!
That's just some of the fun we had at the house!
