June 22

My grandparents arrived in town this morning, so we had the whole family over for dinner tonight.

While the little ones napped, Caleb cheerfully helped me get ready. He made lemonade, iced tea, and whipped cream.

I was honestly shocked at how eager he was to help, but I think it was because he was so excited to have family over, and also because he wanted to sample all of the stuff we made.

Mom sent Billy to the meat market to pick out steaks, Mom made an angel food cake, Billy's mom brought green beans, and I handled the rest. It was perfect.

We invited everyone to come over at 5 and eat at 6, but it turned out that Caleb had another kick board race at 5:20. Luckily, my mom (and therefore my aunt and grandparents) were running late. Also luckily, Billy arrived right on time with the steaks. He agreed to be our grill master, which was wonderful.

Caleb did great at his race, and Chris brought home this video:

I love how Caleb is watching the boy next to him and trying so hard to beat him, even though it's obvious that all of the kids are at the mercy of their helpers. How funny. Still, he did a great job.

Meanwhile, we got everything together and enjoyed time with my family. Dinner was delicious, and my kiddos even got to indulge in some garlic toast.

That's my girl, double-fisting the carbs.

Lily was totally overwhelmed by all of the chaos and noise and unfamiliar people, and she basically shut down. It wasn't until dinner time that she finally warmed up, and she and Jenny played a funny little fencing game with their cutlery. It was sweet how happy  she was!

Eli woke up from a nap and Emily went and got him for me. He was content to snuggle with her, which was adorable.

After dinner, Eli practiced his rolling on the table. He's not quite there yet, but almost!

Then I shooed everyone outside for some pictures before the sun set. Did anyone expect anything else?

Grandma and Grandpa have been married 62 years. They are pretty fabulous.

They have four children, six grandchildren, and twelve great-grandchildren.

And Grandpa is a sucker for babies.

I wanted a picture of just Grandma and Grandpa with the kiddos, but Lily refused to leave her Grandma's arms. So it goes. At least the other three cooperated! (I may have threatened Daisy to get her to cooperate. Specifically, after she refused all of the options I gave her, I told her that she had eaten a lot of yummy gluten tonight, and it might have caused her to misbehave. If she couldn't behave, I would be forced to think that the gluten did it, and she wouldn't be able to have any more. Suddenly she was quite cooperative! Yes, it's dirty parenting, but sometimes you've gotta do what you've gotta do.)

And this was when Mom told Lily, "This is my daddy! I'm his little girl!" and Lily was totally confused but I thought it was sweet.

Now the children are in bed and things are almost cleaned up. Tomorrow is going to be another really busy day, and then things will start to slow down. Hopefully.