Extravaganza!

The only word I have for this weekend is EXTRAVAGANZA!
It was an extravaganza of family, fun, outside playtime, bodily fluids, odd babysitting techniques, and food. We were graced with the presence of my fantastic niece and her handelers (who we also like to see) and after a week of waiting Abby was so excited to greet them that she woke up at 6 am on Saturday morning. The poor thing had to wait "forever" for Clementine to wake up but was excited to have the early morning hours with her Auntie.

When we were little, my sister and I would go visit my dad's family in Pennsylvania every summer. We would fight constantly about everything, but the main conflict was who got to sit next to Aunt Liz wherever we went. We loved hanging out with our Aunt, and I am so happy to see that Abby has that same blind adoration for her Auntie.
We had a wonderful day frolicking with the girls outside on Saturday. My dad was in town for a wedding and was able to escape the grips of my step mother's family for a spell, so we all just kind of hung out and watched the darlings fight over our toys in the back yard. My neice is seriously the cutest thing ever (ok, the cutest thing born in 2005) and watching her hang with her cousins was awesome. God I wish they (lived closer.

Anyway, we had to go to this wedding too, so late in the afternoon our babysitters arrived. When you put it on paper our sitters were maybe not the best candidates, one was a student of mine back in my other life when I taught at the alternative school,and the other was my friend who was hit by a semi back in January. It was either them or two younger girls who we would have had to drive home. Apparently this weekend was huge for proms and opening nights for plays, and my mom was in charge of the church rummage sale so it was slim pickings on the sitters. While our sitters didn't really follow our directions (sure, Nora was put to bed in Clementine's jammies, and they were backwards, and no one was put to bed when they were supposed to) everyone survived and we were able to get to the world's worst wedding.

So Amanda and I are sometimes pawns in my step mothers family and our presence is used as currency among all of them. One of Mary's nieces got married Saturday night downtown (hence everyone being in town) and our presence was mandatory. This wedding was ridiculous. It was one of those 'Wedding Package A' deals where there was nothing special about it. It was definately one of the bottom 5 weddings I have been to, and I won't bore you with details.

We made it out of there not drunk enough to be hurting in the morning, so we were in tip top shape for the brunch with these same people the next morning. Again, I will not bore you with the details of that, but we got to see Amanda's friend Crystal while we were downtown. Our day was looking promising (naps, a trip to Target, some Mother's Day festivities) until we hit some icky traffic coming out of the city. And then the phone call came........Clementine puked. (You may remember the last time Clementine did this Mary's family was involved. Does anyone else see a corolation? I am just saying....)

Poor Amanda and Nate had to drive home in over an hours worth of traffic with a pukey kid (and Abby's commentary). We spent the afternoon cleaning out the PT Cruiser, and chasing the babes around. My mom graced us with her presence and got herself drunk in record time. We had a revolving door of people until we finally sat down to dinner followed by a lovely trip to the local ice cream parlor. Despite, the puke (oh,and did I mention that my stroller got peed in?) we had a really good day.

We were sad to see the Detroit crew leave us this morning, and are slowly putting my house back together. It is like elves have been here and hidden little things around the house (why was Nora's big bear in the baby wipes box?). We had so much fun, and it is so hard to pack so much in to such a little time. I wish we lived closer...then it woudln't have to be so rushed when we get together. Sure it is hectic, but we love when Auntie and her crew come to town, it is always an EXTRAVAGANZA!