What Happens When the Gardners Descend.....

Labor Day weekend was a full weekend as the Gardners, YES all 6 of them came for their first full family visit! In the past, its only been a couple of Gardners here, a lone Gardner there, but this time it was the entire village. It was a full weekend that was filled with the start of college football season, "guy" time, "chick" time, wear-out-Jasper-time, and culminated with birthday festivities for Bear, who turned double digits, 10 on Sunday.

Stuart, Zoe, Danny and I met met up with Bill and Sue in Chapel Hill for the UNC vs. JMU game. You did not have to be there to know what the outcome was going to be. It was most convenient for me as I wore my JMU t-shirt and my Carolina hat and earrings and purse! The weather was nice but HOT in the sun and even Lauren was able to join us near the end of the game. UNC kicked some Duke dog butt with a final score of 42-10. The worst part was when JMU finally made a touch down and the cheerleaders ran around the stadium with the flags to celebrate. Each flag had a letter: "J"  "M"  "U"
Problem was the cheerleaders got mixed up or didn't know how to spell and ran around the stadium in spelling "JUM" ...... The Carolina fans had a field day with that one!

The rest of the weekend Zoe and I joked about how we couldn't do this or that because we graduated from "JUM." Oh dear. I have higher hopes for UVa when they visit in a couple of weeks.....

Sunday we met up with Lauren for church in Durham so the Gardner kids could see her for a wee bit.
After lunch the men all went to get snow cones (flavors to include 'grenade' and 'dill pickle' and 'sour tsunami') and play some putt-putt. The ladies headed to see the movie The Help which lives up to the hype, I recommend it.

We all met up again for birthday dinner for Bear at Five Guys. After that Bear wanted to play tennis with Uncle Danny so we all headed over to our neighborhood courts and played some sort of activity resembling the simplest forms of "tennis" :)  Jasper and the Gardner kids were all terrific ball boys.

I got some much needed best friend time during walks with Zoe and before we knew it, they all left the Dulins as quickly as they arrived. Monday I not only took a nap to recover, but went to bed by 8! Whew!

I have to say that the Gardner kids are truly some of my favorite kids to hang out with. They are all so different but each are eager to engage in a relationship with Aunt Jacqueline and Uncle Danny. Let's face it, having 4 kids in my townhouse could have been a stressful thing, but not with these kids. They are helpful, kind, respectful of our home, willing to serve others and always, always thankful. They aren't perfect kids, but they make being around kids FUN!