the 12 of us (sort of)

This photo was supposed to go at the end of the post...it took 3 tires to get a photo where someone wasn't obscuring someone so we had to accept that Josie wasn't looking and Tyler, usually the smiler in my experience was being outdone by his brother. I would have taken a few more, but no one else was game...

I mentioned earlier that we had 12 people at the house while my family was here. That would be a set of g'parents, a couple with no kids sleeping directly below the playroom that got lively around 7:30/8am each day, 2-2 year olds, a 3 year old and a 4 year old. And the 2 sets of parents of those for kids. The joint was hoppin.

Josie bunked on an exercise mat in Eddie's room and they LOVED it. They wanted to sleep together all the time and continue to try for it most nights. We cracked up when we saw them like this. Earlier that night (around 9:30pm), I had gone up to 'yell' at them for still being awake only to walk in and find them both sitting in Eddie's bed, reading books together. I had to smile. When we came up to turn out the light, this is what we found.

Eddie started getting opinionated about who he wanted to sit by and in this case, he wanted Uncle Kevin. So..with Aunti M's help (she has the most elegant penmanship of anyone I've ever known), they made placecards. Eddie wrote some of the familar names in full and with others, he wrote the first letter and Auntie M filled in the rest. I saved all but the ones that were utterly trashed...



For the most part, the kids got along really well. Feed one, feed all...












Eddie was dying, and I mean DYING for Josie to open this very large present ever since g'parents brought it through the door on Monday. I think it was Wednesday morning before the kids opened their gifts. Eddie, Josie and Tyler opened it together, it was really cute. It was a dollhouse fully loaded with furniture and dolls and smaller boxes just kept coming out of this box as if there were a hole in the floor and someone was passing them up from the basement.

A good, if tiring visit. Next year Florida. Anyone have leads on warm-Florida rental properties (something in south FLA)?