We still haven't finished the basement, but we moved and cleaned enough that pool, ping-pong and air-hockey were all accessible. We all set up a volley-ball court outside, although I never made it out to take a picture.
I have to say.......a good thing about teens is that they don't care if you have open insulation and paint spattered floors. As long as they have each other, some fun toys, music and food - they are happy campers! The girls really don't even need the toys and music, a ton of them just piled on Alei's bed and talked and talked!
I never took a head count, but I think we had about 30-35 fun loving teens gathered.
On a side note, JD and I tromped into Costco on Sunday morning with the seven younger kids in tow to pick up the cakes I had ordered. As they were rolling through check-out and the lady read "Happy 16th Birthday" and then "Happy 18th Birthday" then looked at all the kids, she asked, "how many kids do you guys have?" We answered nine. She then said what I've heard so many times before..........."Do you want one more? She's 15 and has quite the attitude. She comes with all her clothes and everything." Now, I'm not going to analyze this at a deep level or anything because parenting is hard and I don't think for a moment that this lady is truly interested in not parenting her own daughter, but I do think it's interesting how often people say things to me along those lines. It's another experience that I never had before I had a big family!
I wonder if that's what follows the "You sure have your hands full," comment we get all the time.
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