Abuelita and Papa Joe's Summer Camp

My crazy mom,

aka "Abuelita Lenna" to these girlies...

...decided that she wanted ALL of her grand kids to come and visit for a week...ALL at the same time.

My step-dad Joe was also on board with this idea.

So she took a week off of work and opened her home to these seven little darlings. Here they are in birth order...

Zoe, 10 years old

Olivia, 9 years old

Maya, almost 8 years old

Gisele, 7 years old

Mari, 6 years old

Eden, almost 5 years old


and Tessa, 2 1/2 years old

You'd think with all of these monkey around...

...she would have her hands full.

Apparently not, because on a couple of days she also invited

Aby, my 6 year old cousin,

and another little girl from her church who is 9 years old to join the crazy. Aric calls my mom the "Pied Piper" she's always gathering kids from wherever to welcome them into her home.

Since my step-dad Joe had to work most of the week, my sister and I took turns being there to help manage the chaos. Aric and I were there for the first three days and my sister and brother in law came for the last three days. There was a day and a half that my mom was on her own. YIKES!

Some of the highlights and low lights...

~going to the water park like a zillion times

~ five pee accidents in one day (all the same kid)

~ going bowling

~ going to bed late

~ getting up early

~ water balloon fights

~ going to the library

~ getting all seven kids and four adults ready for church. Thank heavens it was at 1pm.

~going to four parks in one day!

~ every mealtime had a highlight and a low light. Trying to keep track of who likes what and who doesn't was enough to make your head spin.

~ coloring pictures, piano practice, homework etc...

The girls had a great time and we got a few days without kids.

Thanks mom and Joe for being such wonderful and hands on grandparents. I know it wasn't a vacation for you by any means, but to the girls it will be the highlight of their summer.

*On a side note...I had great hopes of starting and finishing the nursery in the five days we were without children....wishful thinking. I just barely finished painting. What I realized was that in order to make a nursery I had to completely lose my sewing/craft room. That is A LOT of stuff to find storage for. It had to be located in a semi convenient place and to create that was no easy task. So here we are two and a half weeks later and we are finally making some progress. Which is why I haven't been able to blog that often. Stayed tuned for the finished project.