The kids and I spent the day with our friends, the Martins. Jen and I spent the day making about 18 dozen cookies! The 8 kids played wonderfully together as Jen and I baked.
We've decided that this will become an annual event. I think Jen and I had as much fun (or more) than the kids did. Baking all those cookies didn't seem like a chore at all with such good company to share the work. It was a wonderful day of laughs, good conversation, and lots of sugar! I made sure to bring salads for lunch to counteract all that sweet!
Nick and Jenna helping their Mom with the cutouts. I think mostly they were eating the dough!
The kids were good helpers when it was time to cut out the shapes.
Jack and Jake put together a Lego car. It's great to see their friendship. We don't see each other as often as we'd like, but when we do it's as if no time has past at all.
Isabelle is great with the little girls. Marissa and Ella Jane are both WAY into Dora! Isabelle read them a Dora book. The two little girls played so nicely together all day. Even with 8 kids running around Max, the dog, stayed near by (probably waiting for a cookie or two to drop). Ella Jane threw her arms around his neck and said, "Oh, Max, you are such a good boy". And he really is a good boy, to put up with the craziness of all the kids!
Tom has a large model train set in the basement. He took Patrick down and let him "drive the black train". Patrick was in his glory. Can you think of anything he would love more?!?! Unfortunately, I didn't get a great picture of Patrick with the train because he could not take his attention off of it to pose for a picture. When I tucked Patrick into bed at the end of the day I asked him what his favorite part of the day was and he said, "playing with Uncle Tom and his train!" AWW!
We woke up to about 5 inches of unexpected snow. The big kids headed out to play and build a big snowman. Isabelle said that he was "pathetic", but I was impressed. He was complete with celery arms and a pine cone nose.
Jack and Jake had a snowball fight!
8 kids from left to right: Jenna (5), Ella Jane (2), Jake (7), Jack (8), Isabelle (9), Nick (4), Marissa (2), and Patrick (4).
Let me tell you, this was NOT an easy picture to take. Getting 8 kids to sit still, look at a camera, and smile all at the same time... tough!
Times like this with our families together are so wonderful. Our kids are growing up together, which is really neat to watch. This friendship for all of us has been such a blessing and something we will treasure for years to come. When Tom, Jen, Kevin and I became friends none of us were married. Now look at us.... 12 1/2 years and 8 kids later!
Isabelle has done her very first science project. She looked at 3 different paper towel brands to determine which had the best absorbency and which held the most weight. For those of you wondering, Bounty was the clear winner! Isabelle worked very hard on this project. I'm proud of her.
She picked the colors and trim for her board. She wanted to be sure it "popped". I think it does! Her teacher really likes it. Isabelle did careful, precise, neat work. We won't know until next week what her grade will be, but I can already tell you that it will be an A!
Like so many people in my generation I have joined Facebook. At first I wasn't sure if it would be for me. But, I have had fun reconnecting with people I haven't seen or talked to for years. There were a few people that I was really excited to reconnect with. My friend, Betsie, was one of those people. Betsie and I grew up 5 doors down from one another. We played together all the time, had sleep overs, went to summer camp together, and were in the same class. In 9th grade Betsie's family moved North about 5 hours away. We lost touch, until Facebook! We discovered that Betsie's husband has family that lives less than a mile from my parents house! While We were in Michigan, so was Betsie (she now lives in South Carolina). She and I met for breakfast and got to catch up. Boy, that was a lot to talk about! We sat down and I said, "so you moved in 9th grade... GO!" After she told me about the past 21 years, I tried my best to fill her in on my life. It was wonderful! Although, I'm sure we made our server nuts at the restaurant because she had to come back at least 6 times before we were ready to order.
After Breakfast, Betsie came back to my parents house to see them and then the kids and I went to her family's house so our children could meet. As Betsie said, "we've done a little procreating since we last saw each other. And here's the proof". From Left to right: Cooper, Patrick, Brody, Isabelle, Lily, Jack, and Ella Jane. It was fun to see them all together. They all hit it off. Lily and Isabelle became fast friends. I overheard them talking quietly amongst themselves about how annoying it is to have little brothers! Too cute! I really hope it won't be another 21 years before seeing Betsie again. I have many fond memories of our time together as kids. She's just as sweet as I remember!
Betsie found this old picture of the two of us. She thought it must have been around 1987, which would have made us 14 and at the end of 8th grade (it looks spring-like outside). YIKES the feathered hair, long skirts, and boxy sweaters. I'm sure we thought we looked awesome!
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