I thought we might have this party outside. You can see how well that went over.

Everyone’s inside watching old home movies where most of the people’s heads are cut off and the lighting is terrible. We’re laughing at the “quality” video they managed to capture.

On the video my baby cousins, Steven and Joe, who are now 24, are pulling each other’s hair and poking eyes out just like cousins Tess and Addison are today.

Here are Emily and Jenny. Emily had to go. She just stopped in to drop off the chicken and run. Jenny and her kids are visiting from Florida. I used to play Barbies with Jenny and fight over baby dolls.

Would you look at this? Even the kids have cell phones now days. I swear with all the live blogging, texting and cell phone calls how does any one expect any real family time to happen?

I made this dress! Anna is modeling a bandanna dress, made with my stellar sewing skills.

And what’s going on here? Aunt Sara washing Clementine’s hair in the sink? Coming up next, the beauty parlor. No family get-together is complete without Caleb doing some hair.

We have family here from Florida and Louisiana, but really any excuse to get together and eat will do for us.

But the extra family means a few more kids that we don’t get to see as much. My countertops are filling up quickly with food but here’s what’s happened so far.

First there was some swimming.

Milo and his cousin Aidan.

Then the babies had a conversation.

Poking eyes out and biting fingers.

Until one gets mad.

More to come. Right now there all sitting around in my living room watching old home movies.

The last minute fish fry happened because my dad called me Monday afternoon to tell me he had discovered his freezer door got left open and everything had begun to thaw. You can’t refreeze fish so he needed to cook it all. He kept some and sent me home with three big bags.

You know I have never gone to the store and bought fish. My dad keeps me supplied with crappie and bream.

It’s not too hard to round up folks for a fish fry. I made a few calls and we were on for Tuesday night.

The day started with some swimming. Here is my cousin’s wife Whitney and their 3 kids under 3. She gets a real workout in the pool.

This is my aunt Peggy with Tess. Tess was making just awful faces out there at the pool.

And here’s little Faith. She’s Aaron and Lindsey’s daughter.

Quick, what does Lindsey like to do?

What do 3 little boys do at the pool? Answer: splash everyone! Here you have Milo and his partners in crime, the preacher’s boys. And that’s his poor little girl going up the ladder. She’s so outnumbered. Two big brothers and one baby brother. Sometimes I think we ought to trade Milo for her.

I didn’t get a picture of my uncle Dede at the fish fry so here he is from the barrel racing the other day. He volunteered to fry all the fish for me in his outdoor cooker. I was so thankful for him. Otherwise I would have been cooking over my tiny frydaddy all day.

I hate that I didn’t get a good picture of the food. We had hushpuppies, corn on the cob, baked beans, the fish, of course, fries, chocolate chip cookies and cake. It was all yummy.

These last two people are Lindsey’s parents. Lindsey married my cousin and her parents are always included in our Sunday dinners and get togethers. We like them.

Rowdy with his papaw Doug.

And my girls with Gigi. They think she’s great. She plays with them. Hide and seek and chase. When adults do that my kids think they are fabulous.

I never play with them. They are so deprived. When they ask me to play Barbies I always tell them, that’s why I had a sister for you so I wouldn’t have to play.

I’m mean like that.

After the meal, a few energetic people played basketball. Brandon, Emily’s husband, Lindsey and Aaron along with a couple of my kiddos. Someday you’ll get to see Brandon’s face. He’s very elusive and somehow manages to avoid the camera.

I’ve still only made a small dent in the family tree. I haven’t told you about uncle Leon or uncle Jackie or Linda or Steven and lots more.

But we’ve got plenty of time and many more family get togethers to attend.