As we are wont to do, we somehow turned a three-hour drive into a five-hour drive. Nathaniel helped us out by vomiting all over the back seat 15 minutes after we left my parents' house. Good times. I'll spare you the details and just let you know that it was an isolated incident and he was fine immediately afterward.
Thursday we were able to spend a leisurely morning with Grayson's dad before heading to High Point for The Big Meal. Our niece Heather hosted, but her mom Patsy (who came to help us out when Amelia was born) actually cooked most of the food. Patsy's husband Bill led us in a prayer of Thanksgiving before we raided the food.
Patsy had just left the kitchen momentarily to join us for the prayer ... she worked so hard on that meal!
Any shindig thrown by Patsy or her girls is sure to be complete with adorable seasonal table decorations.
Our great-nephew Mikey pitched in and made the cutest turkey cupcakes!
(I think I've explained before that all of Grayson's nieces and nephews are roughly our age, right? His siblings were 20, 18 and 16 when he was born, so he was an uncle by the time he turned 3.)
Heather, Patsy and Tiffany set all of the food out on the kitchen island, and then we descended on it like a bunch of rabid dogs. (Nice imagery, I know. But seriously. There was practically pushing and shoving.) (WE LIKE TO EAT.)
There were a few tables set up for the kids ...
... and multiple tables set up for the adults, as well. We are a large crew. When we're all together, there are about 26 of us.
Amelia didn't require a seat at the table ... she was happy napping on the couch.
Sweet girl.
After lunch, Heather had devised a series of activities for the kids to do outside.
They split up into pre-determined teams and ran around following directions in envelopes, from the front yard to the back yard. See how excited Nick was?
He was on a team with Jack, Abby and Jonah.
Jake was on a team with Grant and Ali.
Will, Charlie and Coleman formed a team ...
... and Mikey, Nathaniel and Anna Kate were a team.
They had a lot of fun finishing the relay race, and then they just tore up the backyard doing anything and everything. There was a pickup basketball game with Matt and Gary.
They jumped on the trampoline at sunset.
Jonah ran around being completely adorable and irresistible.
I don't even KNOW what was happening here. In person, it looked like some sort of dodgeball/freezetag hybrid. Don't ask me.
Heather and Adam, the homeowners, are wonderful, laid-back hosts. And I would buy their house in a heartbeat! Gorgeous.
Matt, Patrice and Jonah had to leave before the evening's finale, because Jonah hadn't had a nap and they needed to get home.
The last event of the evening was putting together "shoeboxes" for Samaritan's Purse. Each of the kids got to fill a box with age-appropriate toys and personal hygiene items for needy children.
I hope it reinforced in my kids' minds just how blessed they are to have what they have and live where they live.
More on the rest of our weekend later!
1 comment:
Our family has about that many people too! And it's so fun to get together- all of us. Doesn't happen regularly for us.
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