A Wonderful Weekend
On Friday, Andrea called with an SOS-- she had to work and didn't have a sitter, so Sophie came to spend the night with us. Of course, we had the worst rainstorm that night and the power was off until about 4am the next morning. She was a little scared... Grayson slept through the whole thing and never even noticed that it was raining!
On Saturday morning we picked up Grayson's brother, Jordan. He spent the night with us and got to spend some time with his little brother. We had a great time playing in the yard and going to the park. We went to PetSmart and got two new fish for the pond. The kids got to name their new fish (they named them Little Jordan and Nemo). 
We went to Lowe's and got some new flowers for the garden. We planted the flowers while Michael cooked a delicious spaghetti dinner for us and we ate on the patio. After dinner we went for a long walk-- we even took our dog, Lady with us. We taught Sophie how to sing "Row, Row, Row Your Boat" in a round. As it got darker, Jordan began to get a little scared and swore that we were being followed by a ghost. We tried to assure him that there were no ghosts following us and then he told us the story of a ghost named Jehovah that lived in his old neighborhood. Classic! After our walk, we got the kids tucked into bed- then we washed three loads of laundry, so the kids would all go home the next day with clean clothes.
It was so much fun having a house full of kids for a few days. It's amazing how domestic we can be at times. If you drove by our house the last couple of days, you would've seen a yard full of happy kids, toys, strollers, etc. You'd also see a couple of old guys sitting under the umbrella-- stressed to the hilt and smiling the biggest smiles you've ever seen. The house had life in it-- there was laughter and kids creating art and telling stories. A couple of the kids were in desperate need for attention and love. They got it. And they gave it back to us in return.
The house is quiet now, except for the hum of the dishwasher and the tumbling of the dryer. The dogs are taking a well-deserved nap. Nemo and Little Jordan are happy in their pond. All is well with the world, and Michael and I are still smiling! We survived the weekend and look forward to many more weekends like this!