On Tuesday, May 28, we planned for a mostly down day with a few holiday celebrations. This allowed for time in the pool, enjoying the house, and enjoying visiting with each other. It also allowed me (and others) to recover from the sun and waves. I spent some time in the morning getting ready for those celebrations, including making a balloon arch. Shout out to Alisa and Jared who brought me a balloon pump from home. I no longer believe in blowing balloons up with my own air. Rachel helped, and I think Maiya might have also, but I don't have any photographic evidence, so I can't be sure.
Meanwhile, around the house, the kids did enjoy being in the house, but perhaps not in the way Brian and I thought they would when we first picked the house.
For Halloween, we picked up some random things from the dollar store, divided everyone up into teams, and had a best costume contest. Each team got a roll of duct tape, a trash bag, and a roll of toilet paper. Then, we placed the other items on the counter and each team sent someone to the counter to pick up one item, run it back, and then go get something else until all the items were gone or rejected. They had to dress up one person from the group in the costume. Here I am, explaining how this was to work.
This is my team: Tucker, Greg, Eli (who got to be dressed up), Lea, and Maiya
Brian, Lara, Cole were on team with others who were probably getting supplies and that's why they aren't in the picture. (I really should have taken pictures of the team rosters.)
Because I'm not sure who this is!
Or who Ben and Jared are wrapping up here.
Here we had Alisa, Mack, Gabe, Shayne, with Danny and Tyler as supervisors.
And here are the models with their costumes. It was so funny seeing what everyone came up with! Such creativity! Such boldness! Presenting Eli as a princess, Cole as Madonna (with Rachel's little heeled sandals on his feet), Skyler and Dawson as Enemy Ninjas (with Dawson as the hostage), and Mack as a deep toilet cleaner guy.
Mack's sign says "Out of Order: Bathroom Closed"
Here's the Ninja team: Ben, Julia, Hunter, Skyler, Dawson, and Jared
Our amazing Princess costume took a prize, and Lea was the genius behind this idea. Here's our team (of which I can take very little credit): Me, Greg, Eli, Alaina, Lea, Tucker, and Maiya (I'm not 100% sure that Alaina was on our team, but I'm also not 100% sure that she wasn't).
The Custodial Team: Alisa, Danny, Tyler, Mack, and Shayne
And I guess I didn't get photos of the other team consisting of Lara, Cole, Brian, maybe Alaina, Elise, and Ethan. Maybe Michael was supposed to be on their team as well? Who knows. I can't even remember if he participated, but I do know he enjoyed playing in the pool with the basketball after the activity was over.
As did Gabe. And most of the kids, as you can tell by the fact that people are in swimming suits in most of the pictures. Wondering why people are shirtless in the Easter pictures? Why are their so many heads of wet hair in photos? The Pool. We kept pulling people out of the pool for our activities.
At some point, a group of kids and some adults went to the community's resort to play. There was a lazy river, slides (at least one, according to Rachel), and a pool or two. Rachel remembers playing in the lazy river and "we all tried to run in the opposite direction. Gabe also remembers the slide. Brian went with them, but I stayed home to rest or scheme or something.
Shayne was dubbed Lord of the Flame for lunch--a continuing Fourth of July Celebration with hamburgers and hot dogs. Don't worry; he only lost two eyebrows while cooking.
I am not sure that everyone enjoyed having a down day, but I did and I'm pretty sure that Cole and Hunter did.
Jenny played this giant Scrabble game with someone else, just not sure who. (This is the problem with not writing these posts right away.)
Papa played pool with grandkids. I think this is Eli, but I'm not sure.
There was more time on screens than I liked, but I decided to not stress too much about it. I was
mostly somewhat successful.
See this kids room? Isn't the theming so cool? Don't the kids look so impressed?
I mean, who wouldn't want to sleep in a Mario themed room?
I was always happy to see cousins playing together in the arcade and off of screens.
After lunch, we threw a surprise 70th birthday party for Julie. She totally didn't see it coming (seeing as how her 70th birthday wouldn't be until 7 months later in December). We got her a shiny sash and a tiara, and of course, blessed her with the off-key musical stylings of the Savilles. And we all took great delight in watching her cry at
our singing the gesture.
And everybody had to record each other singing so terribly badly. This poor of singing can only be accomplished by musicians who actually know what the pitch is--or so the senior Savilles say.
There were hugs!
And a gluten-free, sugar-free, dairy-free cake with candles.
Pictures with the shiny balloons.
And with her very rose gold balloon arch, which she didn't notice us hanging here in the living room. The puzzle with grandkids was a very good distraction!
I'm so grateful for this amazing mother-in-law of mine. She is so incredible and so so good to us. She inspires me!
After the party, Nana and her crew of puzzle put-er-together-ers got the puzzle completed.
After dinner, we celebrated Thanksgiving with pie because that is everyone's favorite part of Thanksgiving.
And we finished celebrating Nana's birthday (and maybe all the birthdays) with the breaking of a Piñata. But what do you use to break a piñata in a rental house where the pool takes up the whole back yard? You use a pool noodle, of course. Amazingly, it was perfect. Most
everyone of the grandkids got a whack before it was destroyed.
I wish I remember exactly how it ended with these older grandkids. This looks like a war council.
It did get destroyed, and the candy was collected. And we all had a good laugh about the whole thing.
With only two nights left of the reunion, the Valentine note writing got more serious.
As did a game of pool upstairs.
Here's a picture of the front entry table: keys, passes, pump, and Valentine's papers and stickers.
At this point, we were running out of days and holidays; we just had one more full day with all of us together. I never did get around to finding out what everyone's best and worst was.
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