Green Family Day 2014

This past weekend was our annual Green Family Day. This is pretty much my favorite weekend of the entire year. I kind of super, duper love my family and love just watching them all interact.

Nora and I stopped by early on Friday afternoon to see if there were any groceries that needed to be bought and Nora slipped in a quick piano duet with Grandpa. Sometimes, she'll come up to me, wrap her arms around my leg and sigh, "I just love Grandpa."

Family Day is filled with a lot of visiting, a lot of playing, and a whole lot of yummy food.

Ryan, Luke, Kaity, Nora, and Eily

I'm guessing this is the last year Eily will want to hang out at the "baby" table. (Also, Nora's face here is hilarious.)

Love, love, love these boys.

Only Aunt Rachel can make a walker look this classy. 

Isra's eyes are crystal clear blue. I've never seen anything like it.

I found Dan's first gray hair! (You may have to zoom in to see it. There was only the one.)

I claim these two for next year's company. Although, I really should say I claim these  THREE. :)

Uncle Evan gives the best hugs - And also the best lemon drops.

Jessica and Anna

Dalton, Davis, and half of Roy.

Orange you glad he came? 

Eli

Shafer, who is looking more and more like Daddy and Uncle Robert.

If I'm sneaky and very far away, I can get a picture of Michael. (And Jack)

I'm pretty sure this is what Grandpa did all day long.

And they played guns all day long. 

This was the first year that we didn't do a  gift exchange, so for just a few minutes, we all gathered around and sang a few hymns and had a family prayer.

Singing hymns

Gathered Together

Huggin' and Kissin'

Evannah

This year, we hosted Dan and Caitlin (and baby B), and Stephanie(and the other baby B) and Evelyn. We missed having Andrew in the mix, though.

She's giving me the evil eye.

Saturday evening/night was very pleasant. We cleaned up the girls and put them to bed, and then several of the older generation females came over and we visited and made and ate caramel popcorn. I think I'm still digging caramel out of my molars.

Bathing Beauties
Nora, Evelyn, and Eily

Nora, sporting her foam ear plugs.

Evelyn, sporting her amber necklace.

While the babies were bathing, the older two girls read books and visited with Molly, Eleanor, and Caitlin.

Claire thinks Caitlin is the coolest.

She's half grown up already.

It was a lovely weekend. I'm always sad to see everyone leave but at the same time, I'm glad to be able to catch up on laundry. :)

Well, truth-be-told, the laundry is still behind but that's just because I've been lazy about it. 

Family Day 2013

I didn't take the big camera to Family Day this year and I didn't think to take that many photos with my phone.  insert sad face

It was excellent weather and I really enjoyed spending the weekend with some of my favorite people in the world.

Uncle Robert surprised everyone by shaving his mustache exactly the way Daddy shaves his, 

and it was unreal how similar they looked.

She found a permanent marker.

Joshua talked Grandpa into trying on his old Navy Uniform.

It fits! (Well, sort of.)

Another one of the "twins."

From L to R:
Uncle Evan, Uncle Robert, Grandpa, Grandma, Mark(Daddy) and Aunt Melissa
Between the six of them, the family has grown to 68 with one on the way and two to marry in at some point.

Rain

I am letting the girls play in the rain.

I wrote that one sentence, saw lightening and brought them back inside. So I was letting the girls play in the rain. It was hard for me to do but I remember getting to play in the rain a time or two as a child and it was so fun and exciting. I am always telling the girls, "We'll do it later." I realized it was time to just say yes and deal with the mess. And really, it's not going to be much of a mess at all. Just a little load of laundry. Sometimes I get overwhelmed with the housework, laundry, schooling, meal preperation, etc... that I don't ever want to mess with doing the fun things.

We had Family Day this past weekend. I'll post a couple of pictures right now and more later. It was so much fun and we had such beautiful weather. But to be honest, I'm plum exhausted.

We were missing 7 people. :(

Uncle Adam gave her a six-pack, a superman tattoo and a little chest hair.