...heading back to the cabin after getting off the school bus on Friday afternoon.

Kassie and Kelsey "helped" Papaw take care of the chickens and gather the eggs.  "Help" is used very loosely...maybe "tag along" would be more accurate...

Kaden catches his parents up on the day's events...

...before crashing on the couch before bedtime.  First grade is exhausting!

The girls crashed on Papaw...

Monkey Bread for Saturday morning breakfast...

...complete with my little monkey assistant cook Kassie!

Kelsey was the sleepy-head...I think she enjoyed Papaw's wake-up calls!

We visited Mama, aka Gran-Gran, Saturday morning. 

A coloring activity for the whole crew....

...then Pizza King pizza for lunch. There happened to be a strange family eating nearby that looked a lot like us!

Saturday afternoon/evening was quite eventful, although I don't have the photos to prove it. Just as I pulled into the garage on our way home from Gran-Gran's, Kaden proceeded to puke all over the back seat of the van and anything in its path...so I spent an hour or so just cleaning up that mess, washing nasty clothes and coats, scrubbing the car seat and floor down, and helping Kaden get cleaned up.  He never felt sick before nor after...just a weird fluky thing that added a bit of unwelcome excitement to the afternoon.

Then, by mutual agreement by ALL involved (including Papaw, who decided our time of departure...an important detail to the story), we chose to eat supper out at Olive Garden. Arriving at 5:15, the parking lot was already full and we were told we'd have a 20-30 minute wait for our table of 6.  The children were very patient waiters...I wish I could say the same for Kim. He kept giving me dirty looks (as if it were MY FAULT that we were still waiting), and after an hour's wait and no end in sight he blew his cool, slammed the pager on the hostess table, and made a scene as we left with him vowing never to return. Not his best Christian moment by any stretch of the imagination...thankfully God is forgiving!

So we ended up at Culver's for butterburgers, corndogs, and ice cream and an "eventful" Saturday came to a close.

Sunday morning, Kim was in much better spirits and we enjoyed a breakfast of waffles.

Kim temporarily lost his position at the head of the table.  Kassie proclaimed his chair "The Judge's Seat" and the kids fought over whose turn it was to be Judge. Karter was Judge on Sunday morning.

With blueberry syrup in every single hole.

It's a rule at our house.  Every. Single. Hole.

And somehow, miraculously, all 6 of us got ready for church on time. And smiling.

I'm out of practice getting 6 ready to go anywhere. 

But we did it!  And aren't those just the cutest smiling faces?!

We turned them back over to their sun-tanned, well-rested parents on Sunday evening. I have no idea what sort of stories the children are telling about their 5 days with us, but from our perspective it was lots of fun.  (Minus a few hours on Saturday...).  Love these four so much and thrilled to spend a few days with them...

....while the parents were away.