Thanksgiving Extravaganza Part 1

On Wednesday evening, after our kids were already asleep, November 26th, all our holiday guests arrived and our Thanksgiving extravaganza weekend officially began! The kids were super excited to wake up Thursday morning and have tons of cousins to play with. Kim and her family of 7 traveled up from Alabama, and Khan, Joanna, Kegan and William came from Kentucky. I was worried it would be a tight squeeze with 17 people in our 2100 sq ft house but luckily the basement worked just fine for the older boys! That way the family room and playroom were free of any sleepers and everyone slept fine. Truly moved into our closet, Kim and Mike had Truly's room, Mikayla joined Pepper and Hazel, Ben shared Morgan's room, while William stayed in the living room with Khan and Joanna. Nathan, Jacob, Joshua and Kegan all slept on cots and air mattresses in the basement. 

A little breakfast and a movie and some fantastic bed-head from Hazel.

First pies of the season.

Truly hanging out wit the teenagers.

Jacob being a good sport.

Uncle Mike always has a magic touch and managed to hold this little stranger-phobe for quite awhile.

Cody was in charge of dinner and he and Khan kept quite busy most of the day.

The adults hung around inside and in the kitchen...

....while the kids had battles in the basement and kept busy outside.

No snow, no problem. They just sledded on the mossy grass.

Hazel stomping around in frozen leaves.

Yum, yum, yummy!

Kids' table!

Joshua's face!

After dinner, while the adults and teenagers enjoyed dessert and conversation, the little kids began another battle in the basement. This time Morgan's aim with a plastic hatchet hit home right on Mikayla's lip. We sent a pic to a few doctor friends and they suggested taking her to the ER for stitches. The moms all agreed and the dads all thought she was fine. The moms won out and 3 stitches and an hour later, everyone was back to playing. Thank goodness, Akron Children's Hospital is so close and was open. Apparently, their pediatric ER was totally empty and the doctor's were more than happy to have something to do. 

My attempt to make sure another holiday or major event didn't pass without any picture of me. 

These were Morgan's socks for his first Thanksgiving. I feel like we've come full circle, especially since Truly looks so much like Morgan as a baby.

Hanging out before bed and watching "Home Alone." 

This picture makes me laugh!

Friday morning games with a very nice, Uncle Khan.

We woke up Friday morning to a nice surprise. 

Surprisingly, your hands get cold when you don't keep your gloves on!

Why use the hill to sled when you can take the neighbor's stairs!

Ever since we moved to Ohio and have been spending our holidays with Cody's side of the family, we usually take all the kids to a movie over the holiday weekend. We decided to keep that tradition going. Since, we had such an age difference between all the kids, Kim, Mike and Joanna took the older boys to see "Guardians of the Galaxy," while Khan and I took all the younger ones to see "Big Hero 6." Cody got the fun job of staying home with Truly. Since, Hazel turned 3 in October, she was finally able to join the other kids and go to the movies. I wondered how she would do, but once again she proved my worries misguided and was a movie-watching champ! Hazel went potty before and after but happily sat still throughout the movie and was completely focused...the giant bucket of popcorn, juice box and bag of candy probably helped a little!

No joke, this little girl ate half of this bucket all on her own and never moved once!

Hahaha...and notice her older sister is not in her chair. Big surprise!

Afternoon stroll in the cold with Kim, Mike and Nathan.

Games, games and more games. I love getting together with family!

Mike kept us entertained with random trivia questions.

Post nap snuggles for Hazel with Aunt Joanna.

Then time for giggles and tickles with cousin Nathan.

Pepper joining Auntie Kim for some random workout.

Friday night the boys all got tickets to go to a Lake Erie Monsters' hockey game in Cleveland. We decided that meant it was "Girls' Night" at our house. Pepper and Mikayla wrote up an agenda for the evening. It included dying their hair, doing nails and makeup, games, and dancing to music. I'm pretty sure we checked everything off and had a great time together.

Hazel decided it was high time she joined in on the fun, too.

After dinner and hair dying, I put the little ones to bed so us big girls could do our nails and play some games.

It was a great night for the ladies. After nails, the girls happily went to bed and Kim, Joanna and I had a couple hours of great conversation before the boys arrived and we all went to bed. 

Here are some pictures Cody and Mike sent me from the game.

Oh my goodness, I have a handsome boy!
I also love the reflection of people in his face. Cool shot.

First two days of our holiday weekend were full of fun, family and food. Perfect!

And here's a video of Truly to top it all off: