Grand Finale week

As most of y'all who follow our blog know, my brother Greg and his family were in town from Manila for the summer. Their last week in town, my sister Jodi and her family came in for a massive family throw down at Mom's for a week. Just a reminder on our stats, that's seven adults and nine kids nine and under.

We started off with a wonderful brunch with Grandaddy, Granny Joan, Aunt Becky, and Uncle Richard.

 Grandaddy brought his famous paper airplanes that we all threw off Mom's deck. We sure loved our time with them!

 Ian and Abby Jane were swinging buddies. I'm thinking the two of them could swing all day long.

We brought two paddleboards to use on Mom's lake, and they were a huge hit. Katie was the first kid to go out on her own, but by the end of the week, everyone six and older had learned how get around on a board by themselves.

 Abby and Ryan hanging out watching folks out on the water.

 This is how Joy likes to ride.

This is how Blythe likes to roll. We're literally walking out the door to the pool (Chris in the background carrying towels) and she adorned herself with necklaces, a stethoscope, bringing along a frisbee for a prop all in the 15 feet from Grammy's toy closet to the door.

 Joy can't jump without grinning.

 We spent a lot of time at the pool.

Blythe's alter ego is being a sneaky little squirter. She's a confident little one with the gun. I've started telling her it's OK to shoot daddies so she always has a decent target that's not going to cry.

 One morning Joy was spectacularly quiet and groggy, but did not want to be in bed. I sneaked her out of the room before she could bother Blythe too much and we discovered Uncle Chris making pancakes. This morning was in stark contrast to the first morning we woke up at Mom's to Joy gustily singing the entirety "God bless America" at 6:40 a.m.

 Making homemade peach ice cream for the night Uncle Wayne and Aunt Boo came over for dessert!

 The big kids were amazingly engaged with the little ones. Which is great because Maggie and Blythe both honestly claim to be five instead of two, and while Joy owns up to being two, she keeps up with the eight year olds. So it's a good things the big kids didn't mind them.

 This happened at Ian's birthday party. She wasn't too worried about it.

 This is where seven of nine decided to sit to eat Ian's birthday ice cream cones!

 This is the delight that legos bring.

 Since legos are just that cool, everyone over the age of two except Jodi and I spent one day at Legoland. This is the pre-departure picture.

 While they were gone, the two-year-olds cemented their token triplet status by running around town in the back of my car while Jo and I got supplies for a surprise 40th birthday party for Greg and Sus.

As a follow-up to last year's Top of the Hill cake,

We had an "Over the Hill" cake this year!

 Here are the ancient 40 year olds blowing out their cake. We had a fire extinguisher available, but somehow they summoned enough oxygen on their own.

 I hadn't anticipated how much fun Abby Jane would have there at Legoland. This is her very first purchase of a Lego set.

 Lemonade break on one hot July day.

 Even though I obviously have included tons more pictures than most of you care to see, it's hardly even a taste for how much fun we had and how much these cousins love each other. Somehow I missed getting much footage of the Abby Jane and Ashley show- a continuous ballet-dancing, fancy-dressing, funny silly little girls who couldn't get enough of each other. Each kid connects well with everyone else- they each have a special buddy but there's kids always splitting off into different combinations that all seem to gel beautifully. We're so thankful for our family, and we're so thankful for such a special week to end our summer with a splash!

Miss you already, Elliotts, and can't wait to see you next summer!