Friday was Kathryn (as she is now called) and Emma’s birthday. We have friends and family come over and there is much rejoicing. Boys separate from their sisters, girls run on to play with dresses and barbies, and adults stand around and talk about whatever strikes our fancies and invite more people in when they get here. About a dozen children are in the house and at least as many adults. The presents are opened and all the girls now have new toys to play with and dress up and talk through and whatever else they got that does things. The parents start to leave so the children follow. Well, all except one who asked if she could spend the night.
Started off Saturday at 6am with getting everyone ready to go to a little league football game a friend was playing in. Remember the friend the girls has spend the night, it was a… delight to be woken up by a strange girl’s head at eye level asking, “Mr. Michael, can we have big oatmeal?” Sure. The game was fun, although a little disappointing as our team didn’t win. There was BBQ at the game (don’t get the sauce under your nails, stays there forever) so everyone got a little something to eat. When everything was over at noon we went back home and I rested up (wasn’t feeling well from the game for some reason). Kristin went shopping for some food items that we were going to use for tailgating the baptism. She comes back home around 2:00 after dropping the canopy we are using off at the church with some friends. Let me stop here to remind you that the tailgating doesn’t officially start until 3:00. She gets home and hurries me into the car along with the 3 or 4 children that are milling around the house saying that there are hardly any parking spots left. So I jump in the car with my change of clothes and we are off. We get there and some friends have held a spot for us near our canopy, we park and we party for a little bit. There are RV’s and football games going on and a helicopter flying around and grills blowing up plumes of smoke. We eat some random food stuffs that everyone brought. Various friends and family members meander by. At 3:30 I go to register to let NewSpring know I’m there and get a Tee-shirt to wear in the water. The line wraps around the inside of the building, it’s crazy long and I cannot see the beginning or the end. I get through the line, get my shirt, and go back to the canopy for a little bit. At about 4:30 I go back to the church so they can talk to all the dunkee’s a little bit before we actually get in the water, just to let us know whats going to happen. At 5 they do a quick little service, a prayer, and then start dunking people. There were 3 pools and 2 pastors in each pool, so 6 people could get dunked at a time. My home group wanted me to cannon ball – something zany… I just walked through it instead (helped a lady up the steps). I mean, there had to have been 10,000 people there hootin’ and hollerin’, I’m not use to that kind of public appearance. The church ran some quick numbers and for Anderson and Greenville campuses combined, there were 602 people baptized with NewSpring on Saturday. That, according to them, was the largest baptism in SC history. It was close to 6-something by the time they were done dunking everyone. After the baptism I changed shirts and played at the canopy some more. Some of the kids at the tent started getting irritated so we retired back to my house. We lazed around the house for the next couple of hours laughing and joking and watched a couple football games and ate some more. Kristin and I ended up letting 4 kids spend the night with us. The girls went to sleep around 11:30, the boys stayed up and played Nintendo until around midnight, I was half conscious until around 1:00.
Sunday we all get up at 6:00 again. I cook breakfast for 7 kids, 3 dogs, and 2 adults and a partridge in a pear tree. Since neither Kristin nor I have a vehicle large enough to hold 7 kids, I help her take them all to church (where we know their parents will be in the morning) so she can volunteer at the morning service, and then I go back home to clean up a little. I go back to church for the 11:15 service and then slide out of there with 2 boys in my car around 1:15 (luckily one was mine). Everyone congregates at my house again and we start the festivities all over again since it is now my birthday. We watch football games, have more food, play on computer, eat some food, open presents, eat food, watch a movie and… eat some more food. At one point I kind of hide and take a quick 5 minute nap. It didn’t work as people started looking for me soon after I snuck in the bed room. Everyone kind of dissipates and we are finally left with an empty house at about 6:00 seeming like it’s really 11:00. Soon after we tuck everyone in their beds and Kristin and I crash around 9:00. I actually fell asleep in front of the TV. Some reason I thought I would watch a few minutes of something and then mosey on to bed, little did I know that I couldn’t stay awake that long.
All in all it was a wild and eventful weekend filled with family and friends at every point in time. The times I did have to myself were for sleeping and even then I wasn’t alone. This kind of weekend wears a person out, but it is fun to have. We are currently out of “big oatmeal” so we will have to stock up for the next marathon weekend of sleepovers and games and food and parties.
