Family Full Weekend

This weekend we went to Cola town (Columbia, SC) to get together with the extended family on my mom's side. It's her first cousins, their children, and their grandchildren. I'm talkin' 4th, 5th, 6th cousins in attendance. It's great! We now have 8 young children with two (hopefully three) coming next year.
Saturday was quite a full day. We went over to my cousin's house that morning for a visit and to let the kids to play together. Katherine has a son (almost 5 years old) and daughter who's 2 weeks older than Evie. The girls played dress up and all kinds of other "girl stuff." Poor Walker was outnumbered. Katherine said he told her, "Maybe Ward and I can play soccer in the backyard." Bless his heart! Maybe next year, Walker! Katherine and I also had a good chance to talk which was really a blessing to me. After naps, we headed out to a park to meet a photographer mom had "hired" to take pictures of all the kiddos. It went pretty well. MF was timid as usual but a little fussy as I had to wake her up from her nap to go. Gretchen got some great pictures which you can take a look at on her blog by clicking here (it's titled "Joyful, Joyful").
As I said earlier, Sunday we got together with all the family. I can't tell you how much I look forward to seeing everyone each year. It's a growing brood for sure! We didn't get too many pictures as we were busy visiting which is what it's about anyway. Here are the few we took...

The big kids eating. Actually, Ward's the only one not at the table. You can't see Adam very well at the top right but he's there!
Delaine holding Wardy. She came to help with the dishes and just keeping things running smoothly. Delaine is part of the family and had Ward just a smiling like nobody's business.

Another picture of the kids eating. The spread was unbelievable, as usual!

Today was rainy although warmer but nonetheless we were stuck inside. In the interest of keeping things "light" with two tired young 'uns we made brownies to cook while we ate lunch and then had a tea party. Here Eves is pouring a "spot of tea" for her little sister.

Enjoying the "crumpets" once they were served!

On a side note, MF had a hard time going down for her nap but finally did. About an hour later she woke up crying and felt warm. Her temp was low grade (101) but she said her right ear hurt. After a little Tylenol, I checked her ears and found a right ear infection. Thankfully, our pediatrician trusts me and has called in an antibiotic. We have all been slightly "snotty" but nothing big. Unfortunately, it settled in MF's right ear. I can't complain as between Evie and Mary Fran we've only had 4 antibiotics ever. They're both down for extended naps which are much needed and this is a great day to nap.

We had a wonderful weekend and are enjoying the R & R today to catch up on everything. It's really nice to just sit back and enjoy this season.