The Big Weekend I : Family

Better late than never right?

It's now been two weeks since The Big Weekend (of Jesse and Evelyn's birthday and baptism), but there is so much to tell, so many pictures to sort through, and so little time (since I'm now back to work). In order to get it done, I've decided to break it into three installments. This is the first. (Obviously.)

One of the most wonderful things about the weekend was getting to spend it with our families and getting to introduce Eves and Jess to them. Indeed, October has turned out to be Meet The Family month. The first weekend of October, Jeff (my bro), Janice, and Ellie, and Lucy came. The very day they left my mom (aka "Memaw") came for two weeks. Then, shortly after my mom left--the Tuesday before Halloween--Linda, Brent's mom (aka "Grammy" or "Grandma") arrived; on the day after that, Wednesday, the Harts--Lisa (Brent's sis), her husband, David, and their girls Allie, and Claire--arrived; on the day after that, Thursday, Nicole (my sis), her daughter, Hannah, and my sister-in-law, Emily arrived! This latter bunch came in to celebrate Halloween (aka the twins' first birthday) and All Saints' Sunday (aka the twins' baptism) with us. It was a busy weekend, but buzzing with lots and lots of fun.

Let me show and tell a little about the weekend with the family (skipping over the Main Events--i.e. the birthday celebration and baptism, which I leave for upcoming posts)

Introductions

Upon arrival, Linda was furnished with two of the best things the Brower-Toland house has to offer: beer and babies. Here she is with Jess just a few minutes after her arrival.

The Hart clan hit it off with the twins too! It was hard to choose just a few pics, but here are some of my favorites.

It's amazing to see Allie and Claire with the kids, amazing to me that they are already such big girls. This is the part that makes living so far away from family difficult--missing so much of that growing up time. This visit really brought that home to me. Although they are turning out to be such lovely people, it made me feel sad that they are already so mature. I made them promise to slow down and not grow up so fast.

Then, there were the Brower gals, who were, likewise, a hit with the kiddos. There's Aunt Em with Eves. And Aunt Nicole and Em with the kids on their first evening in town.


For many years now, I've been pestering my sister, Nicole, to bring Hannah and herself to Saint Louis for a visit. She never made the trip, but then here Jess and Evie show up, and when they issue the very same invitation and she comes within weeks!!! What do you make of that? I guess Brent and I don't have quite the same attraction... You can't really blame her. Jess and Evelyn are pretty irresistible, and I'm perfectly willing to admit that the same can't be said for me and Brent.

Anyhow, it was so so cool to have her and Hannah here. We have such a cute video that shows Hannah in action, playing peek-a-BOO (with a real loud emphasis on the 'BOO' part) with Jess.

Activities

On Thursday, we carved pumpkins. We had something of an assembly line going. Brent cut the lids off.Lisa cleaned the pumpkins out. The rest of us carved.

Emily sipping her hot cider:



Hannah hard at work.The final results!

On Friday, (before the b-day party) we went to Cafe Ventana in the morning, and then to the Botanical gardens in the afternoon. I don't actually have any pictures from this day.

On Saturday, during the day, folks had fun at the City Museum:
On Saturday evening, we had our nanny come over to look after the kids while the grownups went for a leisurely dinner at our favorite brewery in downtown St. Louis--the Tap Room.

On Sunday, after the baptism, we spent the afternoon at the Zoo. In keeping with the rest of the weekend it was a gorgeous day, so it was nice to spend it outside. As you'll see, we had a nice time.

Here's all the kids!Below: Taking a break. (It's so good that even though Andre was not with her, Emily found someone to lean on.)
Silliness:
You can see from this next picture what a strong man David is, I mean, he really knows how to hold his family together.

I love this final picture, everyone is in motion. Kinda captures what the weekend was like.


It was a great weekend! A great month.