Visitors

My sister and brother-in-law and their four boys have been to Tennessee and gone again. It’s been a fun couple of weeks having them around. They stayed at my other sister’s home this year and kept them all busy. They are now up at my dad’s house, enjoying their last days of American summer before heading back to China for humidity and oddity.

The boys had a blast. Clay, their oldest son, is a month younger than Owen and the two of them get along really well. Clay attended Kid’s Camp with Owen and they definitely built some memories together. Kristy had her boys even closer together than I did, so they are starting school a little earlier than my boys and though fairly close in age will be a grade ahead in school. Thadeus and Ivan are sparring partners. Both having strong ideals they get along great for a while and then seem to want to be away from each other. As they get older I am sure some of the rough will rub off and they will get along for longer stints. Christopher and Aron are just funny. Both have distinctly different features and ways than their brothers. They seem strangely independent, and both have a serious bent toward certain things. Christopher more so than Aron I think. He seems to be a great observer and thinker. Aron is more serious about informing the rest of the world as to what is going on at all times.

Then there’s Ethan. He screams a lot. He’s so cute and little and actually weighs only slightly more than Becky’s newborn. His grin is contagious and his eyes are sweet, sweet, sweet. He is happy to allow us to hold him and hugs very affectionately but is quick to move on when he feels ready. He does scream a lot, and it’s not anything to overlook. It’s hard to believe, but it’s not hard to notice. It’s an effortless, high pitched squeal that reaches whistle tones at times. I seriously think they should put him in a boys choir immediately. His scream will come out (happy or frantic, it’s all the same sound) and you turn his direction and there is no indication from his face that it came out of him. Seriously effortless. They are working on the screaming…not an easy task. I found it somewhat funny, but then, he wasn’t staying at my house.

Speaking of my house, I mentioned last week that we had dinner here Monday night. I may have even promised more pictures and information. I don’t think I’ve done that yet. So, here they are. Oh and, I am able to do the whole “click on photo to see larger version” now. So have fun!

I had a blast. I was concerned that I would do my typical overzealous preparation and then be so caught up in trying to make/keep it perfect that I wouldn’t enjoy the festivities. I purposely planned a very SIMPLE dinner that wouldn’t require a lot of preparation, attention or clean up. I asked Becky and Kristy to bring dessert and my burgers, potato salad and broccoli casserole seemed to work just fine.

I sat down and relaxed. Having dinner out on the porch allowed us to all be in one room so the kids were close by but mostly not right next to us. Clean up was easy, just roll all the plastic up and put it into a trash bag. I wasn’t worried about the floor and for a very hot July, we had a much cooler evening than had or has been the norm. The overhead fan helped a lot and the box fan set at the end of the table was nice. The high for the afternoon had been much lower than normal which helped a great deal and I moved my curtains (I had intended to have both ends of the porch adorned, but I didn’t get it done) to the west end of the porch which blocked the afternoon and evening sun nicely.

All in all I think it went well. I think all of us parents were determined to eat and visit and not fuss over things. We moms tend to do that at times. There is definitely a time to fuss, but if we can get it out of the way before we sit down to eat, we are much healthier.