My kids are the youngest on Dwayne’s side of the family (there are 21 years between Wesley and Aaron, the oldest grandchild of Dick and Darlene), and the oldest on my side.  This is leads to different dynamics depending upon the state we are in. 

The map of affection resembles a web, with Wesley adoring Isaac, a college frosh, and the boy cousin he best knows, but finding in 25-year-old Aaron a perfect playmate.  Esther and Esther’s bird held no end of fascination for Piper, and Kyla simultaneously liked and shied away from everyone but sought out Kara if anyone at all. There were “extra” cousins, with both Aaron and Jeffery bringing girlfriends, and the third generation were a pretty jolly bunch.

Kara is an amazing athlete, and willingly shared her talents.

 

Esther does great hairdo’s, so both girls benefitted from her touch.

 

Esther sweetly sat at the “kids’ table” with our three.

 

 

The bigger kids read bedtime stories on our first night together.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  

 

We loved out evening adventure jaunts!

Aaron and Wesley tried in vain to get the Superman kite to fly.  Even Wesley’s good karma was no help.

 

 

Check out these soccer moves!

 

 

I don’t know what Wes is doing here, but I love it!

 

 

 

Isaac was out playing frisbee golf so Wesley had to find out how awesome Jeffery and Aaron can be.

 

 

Not so long after this last photo, Wesley threw up everything he ate for breakfast that morning.  No one’s pointing fingers, but there was a lot of tossing and bouncing up to this point.  Aaron.

 

Thanks, Cousins, for making a special occasion even more memorable!

Dwayne’s parents were married 50 years ago today.  That’s worth celebrating, so a few days ago, we jumped on an airplane and flew down to California were Dwayne’s parents and three siblings live.  This is not to imply they live close together, but we all met up in Auburn, close to UC Davis.  Our nephew’s fiancé went to school with the daughter of the owner of a Victorian B&B up north, and, amazingly, managed to arrange a wonderful deal for the entire family to be all together for 4 days.

Debi is Dick and Darlene’s only daughter, and she has more style and party-sense in her little finger than the rest of us put together.  Honestly, I thought that getting ourselves down to CA was present enough (it never occurred to me to even get a card—but I got us down there!) but Debi made sure it was a very special occasion. 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

All I’m saying is that this….

 

…led to these….

 

….which gave rise to all of those!

 

 

Look how two turned into nineteen…and counting!

 

 

Congratulations, Dick and Darlene!  The best gift was getting time together.

…when one is going on a five day trip to California to celebrate a golden anniversary?  We’re not even technically at the airport yet.

None of the kids have been on a plane since turning two, so this was an adventure indeed!

 

    

We do love our annual Easter celebration with friends and family, egg hunts, and dinner.

I only brought out my camera for the kids’ hunt, because the one Dwayne does for the adults is so fiendish that I need my full bandwidth.

Actually, this is the best shot I got of all the kids…

 

As soon as we got home from church, Wesley ran in to change out of his Easter clothes and into his Spiderman PJs. 

That clipboard?  That’s Dwayne’s list of where he hid all the eggs for the grownup hunt.  Note to self, steal list next year.

   

 

 

Have we mentioned that we’re not morning people?  At least, Dwayne and I aren’t and we are doing our best to convince our children to do likewise.  So to keep our salvation Easter morning, we gave them their Easter baskets Saturday afternoon (um, once they cleaned up the house, which seems cruel, but it was an extremely effectively bride, and besides, 90% of the mess is directly theirs).

They each got a bow-and-arrow set.  It was highly entertaining for all. 

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I would have gotten a picture of Kyla, but she had taken hers outside right away and was probably off shooting game so that her family could survive the winter, a la Pa of Little House in the Big Woods.

Having done this several times with children, I now always dye Easter eggs outside.  Each kid took turns tipping over a dye cup, and Wesley dropped a statistically significant number of  eggs. Overall, a successful experience.

 

The Friday of Spring  Break—time to cram adventure and friends into our last day off!  So Piper and Kyla each asked a friend to enjoy a day at the zoo.

 

Sitting kids on the fence to watch the sloth bears is frowned upon by all those who are not managing 5 kids too short to see without being hoisted.

 

 

 

Feeding the budgies is always a highlight for the kids.

I’m about to show some really cute pictures of my progeny, so I’ll even it out by showing a few ugly ones I snapped of Wesley.  Balance, my friends, balance.

 

We were at the cabin and hit upon the weekend of the community egg hunt.  I had mixed up the time, so we had time to eat lunch and Piper taught me to make dandelion chains (which she sat down with a bunch of flowers and figured herself—typical Piper).  Wesley helped by picking her lots of flowers, and Kyla wore the jewelry and then went off exploring on her own (typical Kyla). 

[Kyla is currently our beloved toothless wonder, but when she had lost two more teeth, Piper went and pulled one of hers out.  I cannot swear it was loose to begin with.]

Before the Big Wilt, Piper was the most festive egg hunter.

 

People, shmeople.  This is what really stole the camera’s eye.  Look at the beautiful April weather!

I can’t count the number of “Oh, Wesleys!” (a phrase similar to many four-letter exclamations used by those without Wesleys) in this picture. But let’s start:

 

1-3) Total chair foul—not eating at table, chair not returned to table, and breaking a posture rule that I didn’t know I’d have to verbalize.

4) Jar of Nutella out, with Wesley’s knife.

4.5) Make that two jars of Nutella.

5) Odd colored leg—what had he been into that he had been covering up by actually wearing clothes (dead giveaway, child).