Good Times!

Betsy and her three gorgeous girls drove 4 hours to my house last Thursday to visit the kids and I!! It's taken me this many days to get through all the pictures I took to be able to post!! Stupidly enough, way after they'd already left, I realized we never got a single picture with each other, or of either of us with any of the kids (minus one really off-center self-taken picture of Alivia and I!! ha ha!), but we've already made a deal to meet up again SOON! It was such a great day, and the weather couldn't have been more perfect for the get-together. We pretty much stayed outside the entire time and let the kids use the sprinkler, the swing set, dig in the dirt, play on the slide, lounge in the grass, etc etc etc. We even took a little walk through the neighborhood together. This isn't nearly what I took, but is the best of what I took... Emily isn't in hardly any of them because she was gone at school all day, and by the time she got home, we were trying to cram in the walk and get dinner started so Betsy and the girls could head home at a somewhat reasonable hour... I was even babysitting Grace that day, so for the bulk of the day, we had 6 kids between us, and then 7 once Emily got home. Amazing enough, it all went REALLY well!

Connor and McKayla hit it off right from the start! I was really tickled by how McKayla didn't need any "warm-up" time to get used to us before she was willing to play and chat us up. She was so social and SWEET! And so TINY! She's actually 8 months older than Connor!


The two of them spent QUITE a bit of time digging in the dirt in the garden...




Can you see the dark circles around his eyes and the dark spots all over his body? Yeah, NOT shadows, NOT bruises... DIRTY DIRT DIRT!


M and CJ spent a lot of time hanging out in the sprinkler, too (though M tended to stick right to the very edges of the water, whereas Connor would just charge right through)!


(this one makes me laugh with Jared running into the camera's view just as I was snapping the picture)


Connor refused to slide down until he was sure "that gril" (that's really how he says girl) was watching him


And he was so upset at the idea of her driving home at the end of the day that he threw himself onto the car (ha ha ha!!!!!). At one point, he was laying on the top, with his body draped the length of the car and was leaning forward peering into the "windshield" and it made me think of Harry and the Hendersons (anyone remember that movie??)


The kids had a great time swinging on the swing set. This set is older than old, but it's in great shape (minus some cosmetic paint issues) and it accomodates so many kids at once that I just can't bring myself to part with it!


I had SO MUCH FUN following Natalie around snapping pictures. That toddler age where the smiles are just so natural, and they're so curious and everything they do is just extra cute...






Our big "Lickadore" lab didn't phase her a bit (90% of the time...LOL)


Despite having a FULL cup of water outside, silly Nattie kept trying to get a drink from the sprinkler! (sorry it's so far away, I was across the yard and I don't have a zoom lense yet... Everytime I tried to get closer, she'd stop!)


Grace and Natalie really enjoyed each other as well, but Grace took a big long nap right during the prime playtime so I don't have any other pictures of them together. (Grace isn't in a swimsuit because her mommy didn't pack her one! If I'd have suspected she'd even WANT to go near the water, I'd have stripped her down to her diaper)


The kids, of course, begged to get their hands on Alivia. They go ga-ga over babies (just like their mommy!)


She was making me LAUGH with how she'd flash these HUGE grins a split second AFTER the camera would snap the picture. I got most of the smile captured in this picture, but man alive, can that kid melt your heart with those baby grins!




And I got my hands on her as well!


six kids, one pretty darn cute group pic, wouldn't you say?!?! (look at all those cheeks, flushed from a long day of fun!)


And you can't force 6 kids to sit nicely without also letting them do something silly


Betsy, THANK YOU for making the drive up. We sooooooooo enjoyed having you and hope we can do it again soon. We'll do it on your turf next time to be fair!