Diehl Reunion Grand Finale

The last of the Diehl reunion posts!  We finished the reunion off with a bang.  After Miles party we enjoyed another monsoon storm on the porch swing and then the cousin folly games began.  

Some of the Hancocks and Whitmers

Measuring for the watermelon seed spitting contest and Cody is recording.  We take our games seriously.  I'm proud to announce that Charlotte won the spitting contest for the second year running.  Proud mom moment!  The boys couldn't believe it.

Cute babies got the trampoline to themselves for a few minutes.  It was adorable.

Lily is so cute!  She loved playing in the mud and rain.

New events in the pond!  First we ran timed races around the pond, then we got in.

Dad has an irrigation pipe at the top of this hill.  If you're good you make it all the way into the pond.  They played on this for a solid hour.  Cody and Marti were the fun ones and did it with all the little ones.

Man Cody cracks me up!

Madi

Charlotte

Olly

Marti

Cody even gave twin rides!

And Marti fished them out!

The look on Olly's face says it all.  It really is little boy heaven.

Sweet little Lily!

The grass plugs the kids helped with last year came in well.

Thanks to Cai there is even a kid-sized kayak Charlotte was pretty good at it.

Abby made it in!  I think she won for best sliding style or something.  I can't remember Olly's prize...maybe golfing?

And Olly too!

Charlotte finally let Charlie have a turn.

The contests lined up for the awards ceremony.

Prizes for everyone!

We are the champions!  It really is so fun and cute that dad plans all the events and the kids love it!  Let's do it again in 2 years when the Hancocks come again!

5 kids under 5 for a week!

For a week in May my brother's kids came to stay with us.  It took some convincing for my sister-in-law, who was 35 weeks pregnant, to fly to Hawaii and leave her other 2 kids for so long but she did it!  My brother had to go for a conference so they only had to pay for her ticket and food.  So for a week we had:

2- 4 year olds (Charlotte kept lording it over Eliza that she was 4.5 not just 4) and

3- 2 year olds

My mom took off a couple of days to help and see the grand kids and my sister Marti came and helped a couple days too.  Honestly 3 kids by myself is harder than 5 kids with my mom or sister to help any day.  Kori also took 4 of the kids one morning so I could go to the grocery store and Charlotte's mother's day program.

"Helping" Grandma make brownies.

Probably the hardest part was that my twins were both just barely potty trained- so they had a lot of accidents because they were too distracted and they had to use the bathroom every where we went.

 The kids just played and played all day.  My house was honestly less messy because they got out less toys than usual because they were so entertained just chasing each other around and playing pretend.  Plus there was an extra adult to help clean up too!

 Cousin bath time!  We tried to bathe them in shifts but they just kept hopping in.  Good thing our bathtub is extra big!

 Story time- sort of.

Meals were kind of a circus.

I was so impressed how happy Coulson was the whole time considering he doesn't see us very often.  The only thing he really got upset over was the magnetic trains at Barnes and Nobel.

Outings
Sat- Train park
Sun- Church
Mon-Library- the bathroom was tricky at this one
Tues-Park and Joann's- for about 5 min just to get batting
Wed-Barnes and Noble- again somehow I ended up in the bathroom with 5 kids by myself- and Coulson was not happy to leave the train table!
Thurs- Kori's house to play

All 5 of them took a nap at the same time every day.  It was really LOUD and it took forever to buckle that many kids in- even though the older ones could do it themselves.

Finally got my pictures off my phone-

Story time with Grandma- Coulson cracks me up!

Three 2 year old helpers making crepes.

Choo choo!  Train park!  We kept having to count to make sure we didn't lose anyone!

 Matt's first time at the train park.

 Coulson ate like 5 peanut butter sandwiches- that kid can pack it away!

Poor kid hit is head on our lethal counters that are just the wrong height for little kids!

Eliza ate a ton of corn on the cob!

It was so fun to get to know these 2 kids better!  My kids didn't know what to do with themselves when they left!  Send them back again sometime- when Miles and Adelaide are a little older!

Cousin Easter Egg Hunt

Camera is finally uploaded so I'll post some long overdue stuff.  Oh the cousin Easter egg hunt!  It's one of my favorite traditions.  My parents huge grassy yard and orchard are perfect for a whole bunch of kids to run around and hunt for eggs.  It's nice to get the crazy hunt over on Saturday instead of Sunday too.

The loot. The Easter bunny must be richer than when I was a kid- they each got 2-$1 coins or a rare $2 bill in a special egg with their name on it.

8 of the 15 of the grand kids- the others are all out of state- except Savannah who was asleep.

Funny faces! No new kids this year which hasn't happened since the tradition started.  Next year there will be at least one more baby boy in this picture!

Spencer-5 and Tanner-3

While we were in Cornville we took advantage of the cooler weather and green grass to take birthday pictures.  Here are my nephews Spencer and Tanner who turned 5 and 3 in May.  I love these handsome boys- I'm lucky enough to live close enough to see them at least a couple of times a week!  Here are my favorites!  They were very good for the pictures- it's so nice to take pictures of older kids who can follow directions!

#1

#2

#3

#4- Throwing sticks in the ditch off of grandad's bridge

#5-10 Ready! Set! Go!

#11

#12 No longer in his nice shirt but I love the authentic smile!