Andrew and Clara's Pinata

We didn't have time to break the pinata during the party, so we got together to break it today! According to Liz, Andrew kept asking and asking about when we were going to have the pinata, so he was thrilled to finally get a whack at it today, haha! See what I did there? ;) As usual, we started with the youngest and moved to the oldest... Katelyn was determined that it would end with her! She gave it a couple good hits and severed Spiderman at the waist. Uncle David picked up the top half and made it a puppet. Ew!

Jon helped Gracie give Spiderman a beating, haha!

Andrew waited a long time for this moment... and he didn't disappoint, haha!

Swing and a hit for Logan!

Derek forgot that Aunt Lizzie usually spins the older kids before they take a swing. Whoa!

Swing and a miss for Derek!

Spinning Isaac...

Spiderman was no match for Katelyn when she means business!

Chaos!

There's always at least one kid who cries... poor Andrew only had a couple pieces of candy

"Can I have candy, too, please?"

Golden coins are always a hit with these kids... particularly this one. ;)

Uncle David and his Spider-puppet, haha!

Family "Camp Out"

OK, OK, so it wasn't technically a camp out since we didn't spend the night, but the kids refused to let us call it anything but a camp out, so I guess majority rules, lol. We did however make a campfire to roast hot dogs, sausages and smores. Yum! Liz brought some bikes for kids to ride, but they mostly wanted to run around and play tag around the trees. It was so fun to watch them laugh and scream and run against a background of beautiful greenery. The guys took turns splitting firewood and we taught Isaac and Derek how to roast their own hot dogs. Derek wasn't too interested in waiting for his hot dog to be ready, but Isaac turned out to be a pro! Andrew kept tipping his plate and dropping his hot dog on the ground, poor kid. Savanna kept trying to get into the fire but luckily Lanae and David were extra vigilant and nobody got hurt. Bryce almost fell in once and I swear it took me a few minutes to remember to breathe. Uncle Colton brought some awesome sausages that I quickly became addicted to. I'm pretty sure they're going to become a staple in this house. We all made it back to the house smelling wonderfully of smoke that night with bellies full of chocolate, marshmallow and graham cracker goodness.

 So it begins... her fascination with flames

Austin went all Boy Scouts to make a fire. Cool.

 We're so glad they're here to visit!

  Jenna is a rock star. She very serenely passed out treats to the horde of screeching children who mobbed her. You can see Bryce is walking as fast as he can to claim his share.

 This picture makes me tear up. I'm going to bet this picture will look a lot like teen-age Derek.

 Roasting weenies

Mitchell was hungry but that's MY sausage there on the end, buddy!

Derek was too impatient to meat roasted hot dogs, so he helped himself to a few cold ones.

 Andrew's poor hot dog is doomed to be covered in dirt

 Bryce wanted to add some wood to the fire

Isaac is a true child prodigy when it comes to roasting hot dogs

 Hanging in the hoodie

These two were so cute huddled together on a log!

Sunday Sweetness

 Sweet Savanna and Uncle David

 Savvie kisses for daddy

 She knows where her nose is

 Derek loves pinching Clara's cheeks

 Our little princess!

 Sweet kisses for the little sister

This kid is such a good big brother. I love you, Derek!

White Elephant Gifts

 Since we're not going to be together for Christmas, we decided that we'd do our White Elephant and Brother/Sister gifts while we're together. Tonight is White Elephant night. Tammy has a great game with different activities to do in order to earn a gift to unwrap. It was fun to laugh together. The biggest prize was a massive box of Russell Stover assorted chocolates and the funniest prize was a package of batteries taped to a box of tic tacs. We had a blast doing charade-type challenges, drawing challenges and name-15-things-in-15-seconds. 

 

 Jared and Sereen

 

 Lanae and David

 

 Austin and Liz - I told Austin to stop closing his eyes while I was trying to take a picture and this is the face that I got, lol.

 

 Clara kisses for Daddy!

 

 She's so tiny! I'm not used to having such a little baby. It's nice to not feel like I'm lugging around a bag of flour, though. :) 

 Celebrating the successful completion of a challenge

 

The funniest games were the 15-things-in-15-seconds games. I think some of us were close to tears, we were laughing so hard.

 

Liz is just a little competitive. :)

Park with the Cousins

Everyone went to the park today... everyone that is except me and Clara. We stayed home and slept in the blissfully quiet house. Mitchell and Sereen took some great pictures though and it looked like everyone had a great time. Apparently the guys started playing on the little merry-go-round thing and got as dizzy as they could. Sounds like typical guys to me, but Tammy and Lanae even got in on the action! I know Derek always loves going to the park, so I'm sure he had a great time and Bryce is finally getting big enough to play on some of the playground slides. Mitchell says Bryce took a while to warm up to the slide but by the time they were wrapping up to go home, he was sliding like a champ. 

 

I sure do love this sweet boy! He's getting so big! 

 

I love Jared's author's-picture-for-the-back-of-the-book pose. :)



Emeri and her sweet owl hat



 Logan and Grandma

 

 Grandma pushed Isaac, Logan and Preston on the tire swing

 

Bryce and Uncle Jared



Jared and Austin started it all...



...of course, it's hard to walk when you're really dizzy!



Mitchell's turn! 

 He ate it, too :)

 

Good thing Austin was there to catch her!



I wonder if Bryce liked this part...



Uncle David and Savanna



 Grandma helped Bryce get set up to slide

 

Whoa!



Guess Spiderman isn't sticky enough to defeat gravity



Derek loves his new Batman sweater. Unfortunately the mas doesn't stop at his nose like it's supposed to, it hits his lips or lower. Still, he makes a cute Batman!



Preston followed Savanna around trying to put her hat on. She couldn't care less.

 

 Sweet Savvie!

 

Uncle Superman and Superman!