Playing Catch Up.

I don't know how all you bloggers out there do it. My kids won't let me touch the computer all day, and once they're asleep I'm too tired to do anything but the bare essentials (if that).



So out of sheer embarrassment, I'm forgoing sleep at the moment to finally catch up a bit on this blog. Here's how we spent much of August--driving:

To continue our adventures at the Charles Family Reunion, a group of us went to the Biltmore Estate, which is the country's "biggest house" built at the turn of the century and patterned after some of my favorite French chateaux. Benjamin loved the bowling alley in the basement!

On the porch at Biltmore:

The landscape was amazing!

We saw the little farm on the estate and also ate an amazingly fancy meal. The kids were surprisingly well-behaved at the restaurant and even tried new foods like catfish.

We had a magnificent talent show. Here's Amelia leading us in a revealing game of "Guess which Charles sibling . . ."

Grossmama (aka Mother Earth) led the children in a beautiful play about the seasons:

Ben was very brave in the canoe with Steven.

Cousins Sam and Amelia went out on their own.

And even Jacob asked if he could take me out on a canoe ride. What a gentleman.

On Family Picture Day, you'd never guess it was over 100 degrees and as humid as could be!

Here's the whole group, and amazingly coordinated, too.

Grossmama spent a long time getting these T-shirt colors chosen and ordered. My amazing sister-in-law Liz designed the T-shirts and even took the black-and-white picture at the bottom. Next time, we won't even need the professional photographer. (The only trouble is, how do we get Liz to take the picture AND be in it at the same time?)

Thank you, Grossmama and Grosspapa, for a wonderful family reunion!