family

Wow, what a fun, crazy, activity-filled, tiring week we've had!  My sister and her family came into town a week ago, so we've had lots of family activities in order to really soak up having them here.  Mike and I always enjoy the family time, but now Caleb and Logan are old enough to REALLY enjoy playing with their cousins, and that is such a joy for us to see.  We love it that on both sides of the family they have cousins that they just love to play with.

The main focus of the week was my parent's 40th anniversary of being on the farm.  They had a couple events in order to celebrate the occasion.  Tuesday evening was a personal concert for the family and some friends.  A couple from their church has a barn on their property where they host things like this, and they play organ and piano.  Now, this isn't just any organ - it's a theatre pipe organ.  It is really cool to be up close and personal hearing and seeing it.  Unfortunately, Mike had a meeting that night that he couldn't miss, so I took the boys by myself.  They almost made it through the first half, and Caleb was sitting great for the second half (and was very interested and didn't want to leave), but Logan and Levi had had enough, so I had to get out of there.  What I did hear of the concert was really neat.  :)

Wednesday afternoon Caleb and Logan were able to go to the park with a bunch of the cousins while I stayed home with Levi so he could nap (Thank you, Lea Anne!!).  Thursday evening was a trip to the beach.  Perfect beach night other than the water being a little chilly - that didn't stop most of the kids (and big kids...), though!

Two of my beautiful nieces, who, after years of hiding, will finally let me take their photo again!

Friday evening was my nephew, Boden's, birthday party, plus I managed to take in the wedding ceremony of my cousin.

Slip-and-slide at Boden's birthday party.

Saturday morning was breakfast with my parent's, sibs, and their spouses; and then it was prep time for THE party!  My parent's threw a big bash to celebrate the farm's 40th anniversary.  The whole fam plus a couple good friends chipped in, and it really turned out well.  Bounce house, hay rides, ice cream machine, goodies from Casey's Bakery, and on and on...it was a great party!  It was so neat to see all the different people that showed up to celebrate.  I'm sure my children consumed way too much ice cream and pop, but oh well, it was a celebration and now we're getting back to normal this week!  :)

Ready!

The whole fam.

Mom and Dad with us kids.

Mom and Dad with all the grands.

Mom and Dad.

Yesterday Mike, my dad, my brother Mike, Eric, and three of my nephews went to a Tiger's game (couple more years before Caleb and Logan will go...).  I was thoroughly exhausted after the week we'd had, so the boys and I pretty much crashed.  We only made it to Sunday School at church, and then for a bit in the afternoon we went to hang with my mom (since the bounce house was still there, we had to take advantage of it!).

And, since I know everyone (all two of you who read this) is hanging on the edge of their seat to know about this - the crazy week totally threw off Levi's "doing his business" on the potty.  He'll only tell me he has to go when we're at home, so I ended up having to change more dirty diapers than normal (he was off schedule, plus we weren't home much).  I was wondering if we'd have any trouble getting back to him using the potty, but today he did it - thank goodness!  :)