Super Bowl weekend we drove to St. Louis to get some things organized in the house and say goodbye to our friends. Today seems like a particularly apt day to post pictures about our trip, because today the movers are at our house, packing up all of our things. (And a special thanks to Karen Hamlin, who is spending the day at our house, supervising!)
We packed every minute of our trip with stuff--much of it organizing, rearranging and figuring out logistics, but the highlight was definitely getting together with friends on Saturday night! In August of 2007, about a month after we moved into this house, we invited friends over to celebrate Ed's birthday. There were probably 10-12 adults and 1 kid--Cooper--who was 10 months old. Fast forward 4.5 years, and the get-together included many of the same people, and NINE kids. I guess we've all been busy. Needless to say, the gathering was a little more kid-focused and a lot louder!
Ethan and Thomas chased each other around, wearing dress-up hats. This is the first time these two have played together on a pretty level playing field--both toddlers, running around and talking and sharing toys (sort of).
We've had a friend staying in our house while we were in Michigan. He brought over a play kitchen--the Cadillac of play kitchens, I might add--for his 3-year old daughter. No question this was the hit of the night. At one point I think there were about 6 kids in and around it.
The 3 newest babies of the group: Josiah (6 months), Jake (2 months) and Owen (3 weeks). In this group of 9 kids, only 2 were girls!
Ethan became a big brother before Thomas. Here he shows off his skills, giving Josiah a kiss on the head.
Jacob (Ethan's little brother) practices standing with Mark, while Jojo looks on with envy.
Karen and Jojo. Josiah was passed from person to person all night long. It was great!
Molly wants Jojo to wear the cowboy hat.
TJ shows Melanie how gentle he can be with baby Owen. Sidenote: check out Owen's full head of hair! He makes Thomas, who had a lot of hair as a baby, look bald!
We had a cake to celebrate TJ's birthday since this is the group we'd normally celebrate with. Note the construction theme. Expect to see it on the blog once or twice more over the coming weeks.
You know it's a fun party when the biggest kid there--Cooper, who is 5--falls asleep on his mom's lap before the night ends.
At the end of the night, as kids were leaving, Thomas was still going strong. Did we mention he's a night owl?! He got Corey to play in the kitchen with him.
Katie, holding Jake, showing that taking care of a baby is so easy that she can do it while double-fisting--wine AND beer.
Our family of four in front of the house for the last time. Leaving is definitely bittersweet. Both of our boys were born here. We had 4+ years of good times here, and several friends had moved from New Jersey to St. Louis around the same time as us, so we'd been together with the same group for almost 8 years.
We loved the character of our 100-year-old house and put some work into it. We had great neighbors and lived in a great neighborhood, with fun ethnic restaurants just a few blocks away.
We'll miss all of our good friends, and it's strange to think that Thomas will barely remember this house or his little St. Louis friends, and Josiah won't remember either at all.
That just means we'll have to come visit often! And St. Louis friends, our door is always open and we'll have plenty of room in the new house. Please come visit!
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