A Very Goostrey Reunion

This weekend my whole family (all my siblings and their families) came in town and stayed at my parents' house. It was really fun to see everyone and Jay had a lot of fun with his cousins. Well... he pretty much had no idea what was going on at first and was actually kind of scared with all the kids. But after he got used to the chaos, he was happy. We did a ton of fun things. The rain messed up the outdoor plans for the most part but the kids were able to put on a puppet show for all the adults and when it wasn't raining they made a little house out of an appliance box and played in the front yard.

We went to Planet Kid yesterday and the kids were in heaven! Here's Michael with the face that says it all... Jay wasn't big enough for the big kid part but they did have a little toddler room. He kept trying to make off with all the balls from the ball pit. Luckily, Grandma was there to block the door and give him a little talk about honesty. Thanks Mom. We then decided to try out the slide. (Jay's first time... And possibly his last!) He was pretty clingy after that and someone had to be holding him from then on! After Planet Kid, Grandpa had all the cousins make rockets to launch in the backyard. The launcher was pretty much a bunch of pipe and a pop bottle. You just had to stomp on the bottle as hard as you could... ...As I am so gracefully demonstrating... (Yes I'm aware that I look like a dork.) And the rockets would actually go really high.

Once all the launching and flattering picture taking was winding down, I took my niece Emily (pictured below) out for a girls' night. We went out for snow cones (strawberry of course... with cream), then bought nail polish and a fuzzy poster to take back to my house. It was a fun night of nail painting and coloring. When I took her back to Grandma and Grandpa's house, the living room was being set up for the kids' movie night. Lucky Emily got two parties in one night! Here are the cousins lined up watching "Horton Hears A Who". This was the much needed distraction that allowed the adults to play cards in the kitchen.

Needless to say, the kids were up way past their bedtimes and woke up a little grumpy this morning. But they had just enough energy for another round of rocket launching. I, of course, followed them all around obnoxiously, snapping pictures and telling them to look at me and say nonsensical phrases. They were good sports for the most part. And, with a little bribery, Daniel got a lot of hugs from his big brothers. Cute huh? And check out these two. Don't be fooled... they are scheming up something naughty! Mom and Dad's backyard is actually a pretty sweet place for pictures. Kylie is such a doll. Jay too. As for a group shot... well you try getting ten kids to sit still long enough to take a decent picture. Yeah not gonna happen. And if you're wondering where all the adults are.. well.. in this picture they are standing in a half-circle behind me waving their arms in the air and yelling the name of whatever kid isn't looking at the camera. This explains why they are all looking in different directions! Good times.