A Whole Lotta Kids!

A few weeks ago, my college roommate Jill came to visit us with her 3 kids. We were very excited about her visit and the boys had thought of lots of fun things to do with Julia, Samuel, and Caroline. Unfortunately, the visit did not turn out quite like we planned, so we'll have to try again next year. But we had a great time with them during their (too short) stay.

On the first day of their visit, the kids got to know each other, they played for a long time by themselves in the playroom, we walked to the park, we had pizza and ice cream sandwiches, and we survived bathtime and bedtime with 7 children in the house! We were proud.

The next day, our wonderful friends Sarah & Erika brought their children (3 boys total) out to visit us and we had a swimming party. While we've talked a lot about our kids to each other, we never get to spend much time together, so it was fun to introduce the kids and see them interact. It was a little crazy with 10 children in the pool, only one of which was able to swim by himself without any type of floatation device. Just so you know, we had one 6 year old, one 4 year old, one almost 4 year old, two almost 3 year olds, one 2 year old, and four one year olds. Whew! That makes me tired just thinking back on it! It was comical to watch the sunscreen and pool preparations, then the chaos of lunch, but we all had a great time!

Unfortunately, I got called away because of my dad and took Andy and Colin with me. I am forever grateful to Jill, Erika, and Sarah for being so understanding as I walked out the door and left them with my 2 screaming cupcake-covered twins. I knew Ryan and Elizabeth would be perfectly fine and would calm down soon after I left, but I was a little worried about my friends' ears because of the ear-piercing shrieks! :) While I was sad to leave the party so soon, I was happy to see everyone and glad they got to visit each other longer. Girls, I guess we'll just have to do it again soon!

Jill was planning to stay until Saturday but left on Friday instead because of everything going on at our house. It was a little crazy on Thursday! Not only was that the day my dad passed away, but Jill's car had to be towed because it was leaking oil, we had to hitch a ride with my brother-in-law to go anywhere because we had too many kids to fit into one car and Kyle was out of town with our other car, and my nephew had to be taken to the emergency room that night because he pulled a glass bowl off a counter, sliced open his thigh, and needed stiches. Then, while I was doing funeral preparations all day Friday, Jill was stuck in the house with Kyle and all 7 kids while she waited for her car to be fixed and returned to her. All ended well and she and Kyle both made it through the crazy day. Jill, next year's visit will be better and less eventful!! (we hope!)

Click here to see all the pictures!