The Caslers: Friends

I felt exhausted last Friday morning. The week had seemed excruciatingly long (Jesse had been away and became quite ill while he was gone to boot; it was the first week of classes for the spring term, always a mad scramble no matter how one tries to prepare; several deadlines hit all at once; and one of the boys—bet you can't guess who!—gave me a run for my parenting money all week long).

Getting out the door felt impossibly hard that morning. Given my druthers, I may not have left my bedroom. But how thankful I am that we were committed to hitting the road: What a joy it was to spend a rejuvenating, funny, happy, warm weekend a few hours south of here with the Millers! We laughed a ton, played hard, ate amazing food, had good conversations, and basically had a perfect friends weekend (the work I dragged along notwithstanding, seeing as I didn't officially have the days off like Jesse and the kids).

Saturday was warm (50s) and beautiful. There was pretty much nonstop basketball and football among the boys (yes, big and little boys alike). You need to view the picture below with the soundtrack, "Eli, I'm open!" chirping out of 3-year-old Marcus' mouth on never-ending repeat. (Replace "Eli" with whomever had the ball throughout the game.) :)

It was SUCH a treat to have Steve Del visiting too—all the way from sunny California!!! We celebrated his birthday Saturday night even though it was a week or so early.

(ignore the weird candle camera reflection business on Steve's forehead)

In addition to outdoor sports, games (board and other) were played all weekend too. Zach taught Josiah this football game...

The animal stacking one was played many a time...

We all enjoyed various board games anytime a few people were available...

Naturally there was the watching of professional games

(appropriately attired in front of the television)...

And...speaking of games...I'm beyond thankful that no one thought to take a picture of me on any of the occasions when the kids got me to play Twister!

Also not pictured were the many times we played "three on a couch," where the goal was to get either three of the five little boys OR all three girls (me, Marcia, Hélène) OR all three big boys (Jesse, Steve, Steve) onto the couch at once. If your team won, a pig pile was obligatory. Naturally. It was hilarious.

Sunday's weather couldn't have been more different than Saturday's. Snow! The kids were crazy excited and played for hours. Snow football, fort building, snowmen, the usual.

Speaking of the usual, this is, um, not the usual. I'm one lucky lady, eh? :)