Family Reunion IV

More pictures coming in from the reunion as everyone shares with each other.  Here are some that I missed in my other posts.
Me, talking to my Goosie-goosie -- they are so tame now.

 Pool party - big sister A rode the small slides a bunch of times and then went on the big ones and loved it. She slid down over and over again with her cousins.

 Baby L and S had their swimmies on and hung out with me in the small pool a lot of the time. The liked jumping off that low step a lot.

 Baby L and cousin L at church.

 They rode the metro downtown.

 The girls at the Museum of American History -- First Ladies exhibit

 The hens have been laying in this bush for awhile now - since the broody ladies and chicks are closed up in the coop and run during the day. Apparently, this black rat snake has caught on to the possibility of easy dinners.

 We "gently" moved him back farther into the woods. Hopefully, he will get the idea?

 So many visitors = many shoes by the back door!

 I am glad that everyone enjoyed the library!

 Everyone loved the energetic way that baby L has to put her weight into it and use her foot to get the sliding door open by herself.

 

 Archery prowess - when money is at stake they dont give up until they get it.

The cousins planned and practiced for a performance all on their own. Here we are gathering in the basement to watch the show:

 Uncle A was acting as the flag.

 

 Campfire night:

 Sparklers:

 

Family Reunion III: Downtown DC

On Monday the all the big kids went downtown. I stayed home with the two youngest cousins, baby L and cousin L. These are all the relevant pictures from hubby's phone. 

 The boys went to the National Air and Space Museum. The girls went to the American History Museum.

 

  It was a very hot day.

They wanted to go to the Museum of Natural History (my kids' favorite), but there was a line out the door of people waiting to get in.  Some people came home after that some stayed to walk around the monuments.

Family Reunion II: Fun and games

Cousin J brought this great foam plane to the reunion. People had hours of fun throwing it back and forth from the deck to the yard. 

 Boys hanging out in the gazebo:

 "Exploding Kittens" was the hit card game that the kids kept playing again and again.

Cousin L and others had fun playing with clay.

We had a lot of fancy desserts, like these root beer floats.

 The kids had lots of popsicles.

Hubby set up an archery range.

All the cousins lined up by age to participate in archery.

Grandma S made a slideshow of family photos from hubby and his siblings' childhood. We transformed the library into a movie theatre for the evening.

We had a campfire, small (legal) fireworks, and saw some bigger fireworks from a distance.

On the last night we let all the kiddos have one big slumber party together.

Family Reunion I: Sharing the farm love

Lots of cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents joined us last week for a family reunion.

 We had fun time sharing a few of our favorite things.

 Turkey poults were one of the visitors' favorite things (a surprise to me). People were entertained by their perching habits, cute noises, and tendency to follow people around.

 Finding and collecting eggs was this cousin's pride and joy. It's a lot harder than usual since the hen house has been turned into a brooding house for egg setters, young chicks, and ducklings. None of the laying hens can lay in egg boxes so they are laying in the grasses and bushes instead.

 Young duckling. We think he/she is a muscovy!

Here she is with her mama:

During the reunion, on Sunday we went to church. While I was sitting in sacrament meeting I found this on baby L's head! uggh. We are checking everyone every night, but it is still scary how many of these we have found. 

My Dash: Funny Phrases, present day

Baby L is a big talker lately.  She has conversations with her babies and stuffed animals. Many of them are hilarious.   I just heard her say, "Holy Ghost!" several times instead of "holy cow!".
When she says her prayers she says, "Dear Father Father" instead of "Dear Heavenly Father".  We talk about going pee pee on the potty a lot.  And when I am at my pottery class she says in her prayer, "Please bless mommy at potty", instead of pottery.   I asked her the other day whether she wanted to try to sit on the potty again.  She said, "No. The marshmallows are all gone." Of course I told her that we could get some more, but she does not really want to use the potty yet anyway.