Family

 You'll hear me bragging about my big wonderful family and that I've got the best one around.  And the thing is, it's the truth.  I mean, we're not "the perfect family", but they don't come much better and I sure look up and admire all of my brothers and sisters (and not only because I'm the shortest in the family), and my parents, where do I even start?  I am so proud to be their daughter.

We had a wonderful weekend spent with my people.  There were 10 of the 12 kids there, not too shabby!  We missed those who were not able to come.  But, our sorrow didn't stop us from having a great time.

We decorated t-shirts with spray paint.  I tell ya, I am never tie dying again.  This was so fun and allowed a lot of creativity.  Here's Ellie with some serious focus:

They all turned out so cool looking, and I wanted a family photo with all of us in our spray paint shirts, but it didn't happen.  Oh well.  Here's a sample though:

We ate really good food.  My bro brought his fancy-pants pizza oven and threw out 27 delicious pizzas.  And then, wolf 'ems.  It was our first experience, and we are hooked!  Nick's next project is making wolf 'em sticks (google it), because we have to have some of those.  Friends, come on over and eat wolf 'ems with us.  And if you weren't our friends before, we'd definitely be friends after.  :)

Here is me looking ridiculous but really enjoying a wolf 'em:

Oh, and my fingers are blue from the spray paint.  Just in case you were wondering.

Daisy enjoyed her dinner too, which mostly consisted of dipping in the Ranch dressing over and over again, right up at the serving table:

She loves her some Ranch, or any dip for that matter.

Lu enjoyed her dinner of Cheetos:

I think a carrot stick snuck in there somewhere.

Kids playing with cousins:

Nick and I slipped away to our own bed (sleep was priority), but the older girls got to enjoy an outdoor movie with cousins and sleep at Grandma's house, to their delight, a rare treat.  

In the morning, we hurried back to participate in our family run.  And then we had a family counsel while the kids played carnival: 

And, more cousins:

Then we worked.  There were many projects going on around the house and farm.  Most momentous was the replacing of the barn sign.  I think a few tears were shed:

Cotton candy.  We don't mess around!

That photo of Ellie makes me chuckle, but this one makes me laugh right out loud:

We spent the afternoon painting whirligigs.  Here's mine:

What a fun project!  Thank you to my sissy who cut them all out and helped us assemble them!  It feels good to be crafty every once in awhile.

Ice cream for the babe:

 Homemade Root Beer float for me, please.  And thank you.

My most amazing parents:

 Great weekend!  I'm looking forward to next year already!

And, I've been canning beans today:

I took the photo after I'd put salt in.  Something about produce in jars is so beautiful to me.