Hive 09- The Beginning

The Hive 09 was hosted by us this year. I had lots of help from the Konickis with shopping, weed-eating, etc., but still had lots of preparations to get the house ready in time. I didn't get finished with all of the decorating that I had hoped to do, but the house was at least presentable and ready to be used! I am so happy to finally be able to host lots of people at our house! And Annabelle was thrilled to have her "Hive friends" coming to stay with her! For weeks she's been telling me "My hive friends forgot to come over!" at night when she goes to bed, and she was pumped to know that they were finally going to be here!

The first of the Hive visitors, the Wests, arrived mid-afternoon on Thursday. After a tour of the house, we started to relax and begin the weekend of fun! Thursday night, Rhiannon West had volunteered to make a "cheap pasta" meal. By the time that it was ready that evening, the Konickis + Unkie Joe, the Gallers, and the Stewarts had arrived too. We figured out the sleeping situation, did some more playing, and got the kids set up to watch a movie while "camping" in tents in the living room. The whole camping thing didn't work out too well, but the kids had fun playing in the tents anyway. By the end of the night, only Halle and Annabelle ended up sleeping in the living room, the other kids retired to their parents' rooms, the Thaungs arrived, and a poker game out on the screened in porch was in full swing!

Friday morning the kids were up bright and early... which means the rest of us were too. We weren't sure whether we were going to spend the afternoon at Andretti's or hit a friend's pool. After preparing a breakfast of ham & mushroom and bacon & green pepper quiches along with my little helpers Halle, Leah, and Annabelle, everyone ate and we decided that the pool would be cheaper and more fun for the group as a whole.

Before leaving for the pool, Christina and Zach presented the goodies bags that they had made for each of the kids. They all LOVED opening their bags, and the parents were in awe of the creative decorating that Christina had done on each bag! She ironed-on each child's name and sewed on a bee-patterned fabric to give it a "hive" theme! They are adorable and were packed with fun goodies to play with, yummy goodies to eat, and a matching sippy cup for each kid. While we were doing that and packing up the kids for heading to the pool, all of the daddies were outside assembling Keith's early Father's Day gift, a basketball goal!

The pool was definitely a good decision! Everyone had a blast, and some of the kids even learned some new swimming skills. It's crazy how seeing other kids doing things can motivate another kid to join in the fun. Halle became a little fishy swimming all by herself, Leah and Annabelle improved their "breathing" skills, and Annabelle and Corgan both had a blast jumping in the pool and swimming to the steps just like Zach. Little Tori even tried out her swimming feet for the first time ever!

Here's a video of Annabelle and Corgan jumping in with Zach:

And Annabelle and Leah flying into the pool:

After swimming, the kids were exhausted so some napped and some just relaxed while the guys tried out the new basketball goal. We had a wonderful pulled pork sandwich dinner (thanks to Christina), got some of the kids to bed, and just hung out in the living room chatting and looking things up on the internet. Everyone was exhausted and turned in "early" (around midnight) to be ready for our busy "Water Play Day" on Saturday!

Enjoy the pictures of Hive 09- The Arrival, Pool Time, and Friday Night. (Note: The pictures are a combination of the best pictures from Nicole, Nikki, Rhiannon, and my camera.)