oh the joy!

 Saturday morning, after blogging and puttering, the girls got up, and off we went to do some house painting...

Charlotte Claire, Camille, me, Sonja K....they are good sports...we painted for two and a half hours, then I got them pizza, and home, ahh home.  

Sunday morning, Camille and I helped out with a little program at church, introducing the kids to different instruments, then helped them make some simple instruments, like shakers and drums and little rubber band guitars.  (I only put the pics of my grandkids here, not posting all the other kids)

Tennyson and the ukulele.

Elise on violin, Wulf, and Anya trying the ukulele with Margaret (Wulf's mama) helping...

Camille teaching Elise...(Aunt Camille!)

Anya with Aunt Camille...

After church, it was time for the family to come over to celebrate Camille's birthday, and Ben's birthday.   Benjamin turns 34 later this week, and Camille is 15 today.  Cam didn't want candles or to sing happy birthday, and hey, when it's your birthday, you can choose.  I didn't get a picture of the donuts...we had stopped at the store before getting the pizza, for salad stuff and drinks, and the donuts were marked down to 6/$2.  They were giant and beautiful, and smelled so good...we got 18.   I also made two ice cream cakes....because the oven is still broken.  Crushed Oreos, a family sized package, with a whole stick of melted butter, into parchment lined pans (one square, one 13by9), then a carton of chocolate peanut butter ice cream into one, topped with several chopped Reese's cups and a few little Hershey bars, and half a jar of hot fudge, the other with mint chocolate chip ice cream, topped with crunched up KitKat bars and Hershey bars, and hot fudge...wrapped up tightly, and into the freezer...the parchment lining was genius, I just lifted the entire things out to slice, no wrestling with that frozen crust, so easy.

Tennyson had a donut, and wanted to sing Happy Birthday, so I put a candle in his donut, and we sang, he was delighted.

(making a drum with Tenny)

So there were 21 of us here yesterday.  Half of my kids weren't here (Emily, Abigail,Mariel, Joseph, Aaron, Molly, Sam, Jonathan).   Eight of them were here, Benjamin with Ashley and Anya, Elise and Declan, Margaret with Adrian, Wulf and Tennyson, Kathryn with Darius, Achilles, Rhys, then Evelyn, Suzanne with fiancé Zech, Sonja K., Charlotte Claire, and Camille.   So seven of the 11 grandkids were here.

Kathryn, Cam, Sonja...

Kathryn is under all those kids:  Tennyson, Achilles, Wulf, and Rhys...(it was really warm in here!)

Aunt Charlotte with Anya

Ben, Darius holding Ben's baby Declan, Suzanne, and Evelyn

Elise and Benjamin...

Evelyn holding Declan, and Suze and Rhys...

Adrian and Zech

peekaboo!

Adrian and Margaret, and Darius...(Adrian and Darius are brothers)

Suzanne and Zech, FaceTiming with Jonathan in Germany.  Everyone got to say hello to him!

We had a big beautiful salad, pizza, chicken wings, and lots of different yummy drinks.  It's so nice to be together, and I like having a house the kids feel comfortable in. 

Today is Camille's actual birthday, and we plan to do something fun this afternoon, not sure exactly what we'll do yet.  Paul is out hunting, and Miss Sonja K. just left for class in my car, so no water aerobics for me today.  (Unfortunately, the nice girl that Sonja had been riding to school with failed out, with the option to return next fall, it's a really tough program...there are TWELVE left out of over FIFTY at the start!!!!).  I feel super bad for her, third year, and dang.  I also feel bad for ME, because Sonja has no car, and no money to buy a car, no job because this nursing school beats the heck out of her as it is, so....wah, my new car!    I'm glad we at least have a nice reliable car that she can use, and she is very grateful for it.  

Well the trees are mostly bare, but the sun is shining today.  The geese are honking as they fly away, winter is coming.  I am excited for the Christmas season...oh, and next weekend, I am invited on a wine tour with Emily and Mariel and two friends who will be visiting from Canada.  I don't know them very well yet, but am very confident I will get to know them this weekend!  

So my Christmas list looks like this:

Nothing.  Nothing yet.  I have a few ideas, and lots of toys already for the grandkids, but with a list of 36 people, I had better move it-move it.  You know how it is, you want to give each and every one of them the entire world, you want them each to know for certain that you love them with all of your heart, you don't want to lump them all together and say there are too many....nope.  I can't give them all that I want to, but shh, I'll try....and I'll try to be here for them too, and one thing I always do:  pray for them all...