Whew!

Today was a VERY busy day.  Double A, The Bean, The VH, Flower, Pippi, Tink, and Laughter were all here for Holidays!  Holidays is the tradition we started when DJ was 4 (she's 19 now), and try to do at least once a year, where we celebrate a bunch of holidays in one day because I'm usually not home for most of them.  So today we did:

Easter.  Each kid gets to dye 6 eggs, then we send them off on an errand and I hide the eggs (obviously it's too cold for the bunny to come do it).

 

Thanksgiving.  We eat Thanksgiving dinner, but very pared down.

We celebrate birthdays.  Each person gets a cupcake.  We've started doing only 1 candle for each, because between 7 kids and 4 adults, it would have been something like 304 candles.  11 are easier to light and blow out...

 

4th of July.  We got outside and do sparklers and smoke bombs.  There isn't always snow like this year, so this time we got to toss the smoke bombs in the snow and watch the results. 

Halloween.  We do face paint and the kids trick-or-treat around the house.

St. Patrick's Day.  We do a treasure hunt with clues to follow to find the Leprechaun's lost gold (gold wrapped chocolate).

Are you exhausted reading about it?  Because it's exhausting doing it!

 

We then all wore our matching owl pjs to the movie.  Because I am a dorky aunt who makes her nieces do stuff like that.

 

The movie was Moana, and it was a lot of fun.

Finally, today is Shoetopia's 4th blogiversary!  I think this shoe is hilarious and adorable.

Everyone is supposed to be spending the night, but sadly Pippi had a horrible headache all day and decided she wanted to go home after the movie, and Tink decided to go with her.  The VH has family stuff tomorrow so she couldn't say over.  I still have 4 kiddos sleeping over, though.

Speaking of kiddos, all of my nieces are amazing, but can I take a minute to brag on Double A and The Bean?  They still love to do Holidays, but they are also great with helping with the younger kids.  They're great with kids in general, and love hanging out with their cousins.  They are patient and kind and loving, and it makes my heart happy to watch them.  But now my happy heart and I are going to bed.

Holidays!

Last night I had a sleepover with Double A, The Bean, Flower, Laughter, Pippi and Tink.  Mom's house was a bit crowded, but it just made it more cozy.  Today they were all on hand so we could do Holidays!  For those of you unfamiliar, this is the day when we do a whole bunch of holidays in one day while I'm home because I miss most of them with the kiddos during the year.  For Easter we dyed eggs and then had an Easter egg hunt in the yard.  Then we did Fourth of July with leftover smoke bombs and snaps that the brother brought over.  Lunch was a Thanksgiving dinner with turkey and stuffing followed  by a birthday celebration for everyone with cupcakes and candles.  After lunch we did Halloween with face paint and Trick-or-Treating at various doors (usually we do this outside, but today it was pouring down rain so we did it inside).  Last we did a St. Patrick's Day treasure hunt to find the gold that the Leprechaun hid.  Hopefully a good time was had by all.  Mom and I were fairly tired afterwards, but I had fun.  Here are the shoes everyone wore today:

The Bean and Double A's matching fleep flops.

Tink's whole outfit was that crazy color combination, plus these fun, colorful shoes that light up.

Laughter.  I think these are adorable.

Flower.  She's siting next to me and says these shoes are oooooold.  But look at her cute polka dot socks!

I love Pippi's colorful laces.

Today was another awesome day with the fam.  Laughter, Flower, The Bean and Double A are staying the night again, so that will be fun.  And slightly less crowded.

Memory Lane:  2013. 2014. 2015.

Sandy Potatoes

Happy Medical Dosimetrist Day! Yeah, I didn't know what it was either. Click on the link for the definition if you're interested. I'm assuming medical dosimetrists wear practical shoes of some kind, but you know what they say about assuming. At any rate, were going to go with shoes celebrating something a little more recognizable. (No offense to the dosimetrists out there, I just don't know what shoes to post for your day) Today is also National Sandcastle Day.

And these are just all kinds of wrong.

Much better, and much more practical for the beach.

Did you know today is also National Potato Day?

Who buys and wears potato flip flops? Please tell me if it's you.

Certainly not Mrs. Potato Head. She's more of a practical pumps kind of spud.

Hey, I hope if you know any medical dosimetrists that you built them a sandcastle and made them some nice potato dishes today. 

The Nephew and the BFF

One of the most awesome things about the BFF is that if she is available and the roads and weather aren't too terrible, she will drive the 4 hours from her house to my parents' house when I come to MT.  Because she's the bestest best friend ever.  Unfortunately, due to one thing and another, we haven't seen each other since the hubby and I got married, almost a year and a half ago.  She and the nephew drove over yesterday, though, and are spending the weekend.  The nephew is now 4 and is hilarious, busy and LOUD.  Man, that kid has energy for days.  It makes me tired just looking at him.  He is totally into cars and planes (and the movies with those names).  Hence his slippers:

Today it warmed up into the 40s and poured rain all day.  Definitely not a winter wonderland this visit.  We stayed in and made pizza and hung out.  Laughter was here for awhile and she and the nephew played for a few hours, which was fun to watch.

I didn't post yesterday because I was exhausted from holidays.  I think everyone had a good time.  There were no major meltdowns, which is always good.  We did Easter, Halloween, 4th of July, Thanksgiving, Birthdays St. Patrick's Day, Christmas, and Valentine's Day.  As soon as one thing is almost over the kids ask, "what's next?"  And have a habit of saying, "is that it?"  Jeez, kiddos, we did 8 holidays in 1 day, how much more do you want?  Are you trying to kill the adults or what?  Oh well, this is the 13th time we've done it, and I'm pretty sure we're not stopping any time soon.