Shooting stars

We hosted a full house last weekend and welcomed sisters, aunts, cousins, grandparents to share our little abode here. Air mattresses were filled, futon mats flipped out and pillows shaken out of their tightly compressed giant ziploc bags from the attic. I know you're thinking 'But weren't you JUST in Oklahoma to visit these people?'. And the answer is Yes, actually we were. That was about the time SOMEONE (I'm looking at YOU, Grumpy!) got it into their head that we should all get together to witness the Greatest Meteor Event In Decades as a family unit. And wouldn't that be fun? The first suggestion was camping. No go on that. Texas in August. Need I say more? Then a lodge at a state park. No go again. Too much money. Travel budget busted on California. Why not just come to Austin? I say. We've got Plenty'o'Room, I say. Bring the kids! So that's how I get myself into things like that.

But really, it turned out to be a very fun weekend. It was a bit torturous for me because I couldn't eat anything I was cooking for the gang. Plus, Big E made what everyone told me were the Best Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip cookies (substitute honey for the corn syrup) ever.

BB and I are in the midst of this detox cleanse thing and it was a true test of my willpower (what BB lovingly refers to as my stubbornness). The diet seems to be nothing to him. He asked why we don't eat like this all the time. How about because I can't LIVE in the kitchen doing nothing but chopping and cooking without going CRAZY (or crazier, depending on your POV).

I warned my sisters that we were still de-TV-ified, so we would be dependent on videos to brainlessly entertain the children for hours on end. But they never turned the TV on once. The Big 4 (Big E, Little A, MP2, and NP) played Harry Potter ALL DAY Saturday.

Quidditch can be rough business.

They ran around the house spouting spells and waving wands and playing Quidditch hour after hour. When they ran out of spells and finally caught the Snitch they played Settlers of Catan.

Summoning a spell?

I wasn't in on that but they looked like they were having lots of The Fun. The Little 2 (Big M and Little M) entertained themselves in various ways, including the occasional spell thrown their way, and just going up and down the stairs, over and over and over.

I swear he was having fun.

Sweet nieces.

The meteors didn't really start coming out 'til it was time for us to take our ridiculously exhausted and whiny kids home to bed, but it turned out alright. We saw a few good ones and one that was truly amazing. Even better than this one....


And we saw them together.