That's A LOOTTA Burgers

Saturday we were thrilled to host a big family party around our pool. We had 27 of us, eating, swimming, talking, laughing, and eating some more. The teen boys weren't too happy about being woken up at 8 something on a Saturday morning to help get ready, but thanks to them and my sister and brother-in-law, we had everything ship-shape by lunch time.

The Boss ran the grill, and one of the little ones commented as they ran dripping by, "Wow, Uncle Boss, that's a loottta burgers!"  He wasn't kidding!  All in all, this big extended gang of mine blew through all this food, in only a couple hours:

24 burgers and buns
4 lbs of dogs and buns
2 huge bowls of cut-up fruit
4 qts. of baked beans
5 dozen deviled eggs
1 large garden salad
4 bags of chips
3 gallons of drinks
3 different double-batches of desserts

And that's not counting the second gathering we had of 22 of us Sunday night for Mexican Cornbread Pizza and ice cream sundaes!  There weren't many left-overs by bedtime on Sunday night: whatever was left from the weekend got consumed by the foraging teens.  Now I know why folks say that feeding teens is a lot like feeding a newborn. They eat every two hours!

Here's a few peeks into our family day. 

Grandma with the youngest grandchild.

Aren't they both gorgeous?

Li'l Empress with her "Unca Pawwww."

She loves it when he launches her into the deep

end. She asks for "higher, higher!"

and I stop watching. 

Grandma and Dr. D catchin some rays.

They both have corny senses of humor

and crack themselves up regularly.

We all groan, but I love it. 

My brother. Seconds later he was cracking

us up with one of his jokes. I love his sense

of humor, too. 

 Grandpa, taking it all in.

Don't ya think he looks a little like Merlin Olsen?

 The Birthday Boy, showing off some loot.

All together, we celebrated all the

July and August birthdays. There was LOTS

of wrapping paper and ribbon everywhere!

Li'l Empress got her first baby doll from

Grandma and Grandpa. She was soo cute with it.

Such a doting little momma... 

My youngest sister, getting her baby fix! 

Heh. Sharing new birthday toys with her cousins

was NOT Li'l Empress's favorite past-time.

We really need to work on that.

It's weekends like this that I cherish. I am fully aware that we are blessed beyond measure to have such loving relationships between us as siblings and that it should never be taken for granted. My parents did a wonderful job instilling in us the importance of building real and lasting friendships with each other as we grew up. The extraordinary bonus is that our spouses all feel the same way about investing in the relationships between us all. And I'm grateful that each of these relationships are built on the solid foundation of Jesus Christ. I don't take that for granted at all.