having a full house, and a full heart....

Yesterday was simply golden. That's all there is to it. All the kids were here, (except for Sam in VA, Aaron in OR, Kathryn in OR, and Jonathan, who was at his friends' house). So 12 of them, and four spouses, four of the five grandkids, were here. Benjamin, Ashley and their two littles, Anya and Elise, left before Joseph and his wife Bethany got here, but still. :). Abigail had taken Charlotte Claire and Camille to Connecticut for the weekend, but stayed for dinner and a nice visit when she brought them home. Emily had been to a Nurse Practitioner conference for the weekend, but stopped in for a few hours, though she was tired. Mariel has been drowning in homework, she's going back to school for her Master's in something...nursing education maybe? But she came over for a few hours too. It was a special occasion, little Wulf turned one year old!!!!

So in no particular order, some pics of the fun and chaos of having a big family!
(Mali, Suzanne, and Margaret holding her little Wulf)

I don't know if the dogs particularly LOVE the little ones, but they certainly tolerate them, and Suri will just get up and move if they bug her too much. They are good doggies, Suri and Sunny.


(Wulf got to go to the zoo for his birthday, he got a toy Wolf)
(Lydia and Anya loved the cupcakes that Aunt Margaret made!)


Doesn't every family sit around and sing after dinner? Paul likes watching March Madness (college basketball), poor Paul, so much else is going on around here, ha.

But it was a golden day. I got up in the morning and browned up two nice chuck roasts, put them in the crockpot with two gravy packets and some baby carrots. In the afternoon we peeled 8 pounds of red skinned potatoes, mashed them up with lots of butter, salt and pepper, and steamed three bunches of asparagus.

Now it's Monday morning, a sunny and cold one. Lydia spent the night, Anne will be here soon. The kitchen is mostly back in order after yesterday, and most of the toys are put away. I'm sitting here with my coffee, enjoying the quiet before it gets busy in here again...:)