Family Birthday Party

Since my family is so big, we basically have seasonal birthday dinners. My mom, my brother Christopher and I have birthdays in August, July and September, respectively, so our birthdays usually get lumped together. Both of my sisters and both of their husbands (coincidentally, both of my sisters married guys named Jim, from Mississippi, who are huge Auburn fans. Weird, huh?) have birthdays in March and April, so they have their birthdays together. Then my sister-in-law, Kajsa, my step-dad, Benton, and Grant all have May birthdays, so their birthdays are together. Strangely enough, there are no winter or fall birthdays among the adults in my family. Anyway, over Memorial Day weekend we celebrated the May birthdays and because my mom and step-dad are always looking to add a little fun, they rented a large, inflatable water slide.
The water slide was a surprise (even for the adult children) but we were told there would be something involving water and at least one grown up per family needed to wear a swim suit. I'll admit, I somewhat grumpily decided I would take one for the Howard team and be prepared to get wet, but once we got there, I was so glad that I was the one. I went down the slide so many times (sometimes I even helped my children) and had a blast.
Jim (Erin's Jim!) and I had a good time "helping" the kids down the slide.

 

Finn refused to go down the slide but he loved standing in the pool at the bottom of the slide.

I liked standing in the pool part, too.

Besides the slide there was also a tunnel of water.

 

That was a big hit with Finn and Carolina.

Carolina stood here, squealing with delight, for about 30-45 minutes. (Check out that dimple. She points to it and says, "Mama, I have a dimple.")

She had so much fun, and so did cousin Lily Kate.

Then some mad genius (ahem, my husband) figured it would be fun to throw the kids down the tunnel, like a slip 'n slide on steroids. I'm pretty sure he got a good arm workout that day. Here's Grant throwing Jack down the tunnel. (Sidenote: I have the best husband ever.)

Then, another mad genius (that would be my brother, Chris) decided he would essentially do the same thing, but by himself, running and jumping into the tunnel to shoot down it. You know you want the action shot. Here you go!

 Afterward everyone got dried off and we ate lunch on the deck. I'm not sure what Poppy and Finn were discussing here but it must have been important.

I adore this guy.

Maggie helped Grant open his birthday cards. We used to get PG-13 rated cards for each others birthdays and crack up as we passed them around. Now that Maggie can read, the cards have generally been toned down to a boring G rating. Ah, the sacrifices we make for our kids.

I must leave you with a final bit of cuteness. This was the first time the older cousins got to sit together at their own table. Here are six of my mom and Benton's grandchildren, looking awfully adorable if I do say so myself. I love those kids.