This year in a break from prior tradition, we decided that each family would be responsible for a meal instead of the host providing all of them. As hosts, we ended up doing a couple of meals, but it was nothing like last time when we fed 18 people all weekend (yes, the group has grown a bit from the last time we hosted!). This year we also asked families to bring their own towels and some of their own sheets, which really cut down on the post-weekend laundry! These changes definitely made things easier for the sole working mom of the group.
It's hard to believe that they've been having these annual gatherings since 2000. This year, to celebrate their "10th anniversary" I had a cake made for them.....in the shape of a dog bone! We were hoping to cut into it Friday night after dinner when everyone arrived, but a few families got off to a late start....and the 4th family didn't arrive until about 9:30pm (with the 5th not able to arrive until about 11:30pm!). The kids were certainly crazy when we cut into a cake that late at night and gave everyone a snack before sending the kids to bed!
The Chilldogs(Brad, Paul, Elliott, Jim and Jon) 
The Childog Families
The Childog Families10 adults
13 children (ages 7 and under)
On Saturday morning, we took everyone to the splash park at the end of our street. The kids loved it. Hannah was a little unsure of the water at first, but eventually got up the nerve to get wet. We played for quite a while and had a picnic lunch -- some kids climbed the rocks and Jon took some of the boys fishing for a little while too. Of course, some of us moms had to take the littlest kids home for afternoon naps -- thank goodness the splash park is right down the street (and free!).
After our afternoon at the splash park while the little kids took naps, Emily did a craft with the older kids. Thank goodness we have a kitchen table with lots of leaves (and a tablecloth). Emily had all of the kids make magnetic boards with their names on them. They were really neat and I'm so thankful that Emily is creative and has all of these really neat craft supplies to be able to lead a craft like that.
Saturday evening we headed over to the Gilham's new house for our annual pinata (well, we had dinner too). The Mooney family makes a pinata every year, and this year they made it to look like a goat. We had the kids take turns - youngest to oldest - trying to break it. After at least two times through the lineup, we still hadn't broken the thing, so the moms took a turn....and after none of us could do it, the dads had to take a turn too! Here are a few pictures from our pinata evening.
Kids all ready to go!
Hannah was a little more interested in riding a tricycle than getting candy after the pinata finally broke. In fact, I think she would have only picked up the first piece of candy she saw if Daddy hadn't helped her grab a few more. Of course, the guys then got silly with the pinata....Brad is shown below showing off his Lebron "Quitness" tee-shirt.
Trying to get 13 kids lined up for a group picture is quite an adventure.....Here are a few candid shots of the kids (with Abby) for a "chillpup" picture. Notice the foam axes that some of the boys have...they keep things interesting!
On Sunday morning when we got home from church we noticed a "bug" in our tree...... You see, last year one of the guys brought his kids' little motorized car with them to Illinois and the guys added another battery to make it go even faster than normal. This year, Brad showed up with his girls' Barbie Beetle tied to the top of his minivan so it could get "souped up"....the guys made a midnight trip to Walmart for supplies and hot-wired the battery. The kids ended up using it SPEEDING up and down the street for a while on Saturday....but it eventually burned out the motor. As a result, some of the guys found a way to rig it up into our front tree as a departing "gift" to us. As you can see, the car is up pretty high in a big tree... It was raining when everyone left Sunday evening, so the car stayed until Monday when Jon managed to get it down -- we were wondering what the city's tree-trimming crew thought as they worked on the street trees in our neighborhood on Monday morning. (Jon is convinced that they didn't notice it, since he didn't initially notice it either.) 
Ultimately, a good time was had by all. We'll be at 24 people next year with the addition of the newest Baby Woolley. Amazing how the group keeps growing - of course, there were already 6 kids in the mix before I joined the group! These days the kids look forward to it as much as the adults and for us it is certainly a time of staying up late, white elephant gift exchanges, and kids being way off schedule and consuming loads of food.
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