Christmas in July

Edited 7/7/12 to add details and photos.

Today, we all got together to celebrate, well, pretty much everything: Mother's Day for four of us, Father's Day for two of them, and birthdays for Shrike in absentia, me, LadyKay, Frappa, Babybro and NumberOne.

If you're keeping score, and actually know my family, you will realized that that adds up to every adult getting gifts, and no children. We decided that probably was not a good idea, so three of the things that Peeper and picked up at Target yesterday (well, I picked up behind her back) were puzzles for each of the kids.

To backtrack just a bit, when we first arrived at Anonymama's house, one of the things we discovered in her fridge was a bag of cherries, so me and my big mouth offered to make a no-sugar-added pie for the big family dinner.

When we were at LadyKay's house, I was telling her about it, and said, "But it may not be as pretty as the first one I made, because I don't know if Mama has any cookie cutters."

Peeper piped up to say, "Perhaps you could bring your own cutters."

Okay, well, first it's a little late now to do that, but that would be a good idea, but more importantly, did you just say "perhaps?"

Anonymama and I pitted the cherries yesterday and I got the filling all cooked up and ready, and just put it together and baked it this morning.

I actually did find one cookie cutter - a Christmas tree - but I figured that since everyone was getting gifts, and since it is now July, we would declare it "Christmas in July," and go with it.

I gave Peeper the dough scraps, and she had a great time making her own "pie." She was even dressed for the fake-occasion.

My brother's family wasn't able to stay long, but we had a nice visit while they were here. The kids seemed to enjoy playing tougher, although Peeper was a bit territorial and possessive, both about "her" toys and "her" Grandma. 


Most of the time they were having much more fun than it seems in these photos!

Like here, for example.

I know it looks like Peeper is pulling DaNiece's hair, but she really wasn't. I forget what her story was, but it made sense at the time, and DaNiece was cool with it. And they were both really cook with "Aunt" Frappa sliding them all around the floor in the basket. DaNephew got a turn later, but I didn't get any photos of that.

Puzzlin' cousins. This is not one of the new puzzles, it's a mamas-and-babies animal puzzle that lives at Anonymama's house.

We were hoping for a photo of all the grandkids, but BabyBro's young uns weren't feeling it.

I swear, two seconds before this, all three little ones were quite happily hugging AuntieKay bye-bye. It was very sweet, but there was no dramatic reenactment to be had.

After everyone was gone, Peeper helped me do some laundry. I seemed to get some variation on this photo every trip. 

When it was time to get to sleep, Peeper was having a rough time, and was up until about 11, dealing with being sad about leaving Grandma and Grandpa, plus being excited about going home to see Mommy tomorrow, plus being exhausted, which made it all feel even bigger.

We ended up having to get back up for some more bye-bye snugs before she finally settled down.