poco chillin on the armrest of my chair. 
when his auntie b came by with all those blankets, poco could hardly handle all that soft comfort! here he is atop that mountain of blankets! 
when barbara got under the covers on the couch poco was all over that! he's getting sleepy... 
this is what we call an extreme close-up! i think the flash may have blinded him for a minute or two... 
another extreme close-up. he sure looks like a sea otter or something with his ears down, huh?
barbara came earlier in the day and brought all kinds of blankets and pillows for sleeping and put them on the chair in the living room. dad figured it was as good of place as any to sit- and extra padding! 
dad is not someone you would call tech savvy, so when we went to the phone store we looked for what ever phone had the least amount of buttons! it got really funny when a worker came over to help, she asked 'do you want a camera on your phone?' and dad's reply was 'my goodness, no!' we eventually found the phone that most looked like the jitterbug (its a really simple phone for elderly people that has really big numbers and nothing else to confuse them) and he was happy. no longer does he have to worry about the 'pay as you go' style of his old phone, which is going to save him a lot of hassle!
josh and barbara getting their money in order after an important transaction that lead to josh being able to build devos halls on his properties (yes, the grand rapids monopoly is incredibly nerdy...) 
everyone rushing to think of something in all the different categories during a rousing game of scattergories.
this guy keeps an eye on the pool sticks at that cool cigar shop papa and i went to. now that i look at him i realize he kinda has a scared look on his face, huh? dont worry, buddy, we will return the sticks when we're done, promise! 
diana, mom, and papa chillin at their hotel room after our dinner. 
mom and david at the thai place happy to see us again! 
diana and i ready to eat, as you can see i really dressed up for the occasion... 
look at those blue eyes- what a cutie! he was so pumped all night- it had been 10 days since he last saw his mommy, so he was squirming all over the place with excitement! 
since it was circus related, i kind of liked the term 'book fair big top', so i made a couple banners to put at the end of the hall.
the books themselves fill up most of the wall space, so i just threw in a few accents with a bunch of balloons and a few popcorn boxes.
i thought that little orange hand coming out of the light switch box would be kind of funny. i dont know if anyone else really noticed it, but it made me laugh!
keeping the circus big top idea in mind, i made this big circus tent for the start of the hallway, this was the first thing the students would see as they walked over to the book fair. its not my best work, but i thought it was a decent addition to the book fair decor they provided.
one of the times bub went up to spy on the girls he took this quick snapshot! i'm sure the girls were unawares of his stealthful sleuthing...
after we were done playing i noticed a deck of cards on the table, so i decided to show the kids a little card trick i picked up a few years back. they were blown away by it! i then proceeded to show them how it was done and they loved doing the trick themselves. it was so hilarious because they were surprised every time it worked- even when they were the ones doing it!
our gross little poco standing at the top of the steps looking so tiny! 
after we finished our game of life, tweets told us that she was learning how to play the violin! what?!? how awesome is that! she went and got her little mini violin to show off what she had learned so far. she's not very far along on the lessons, basically all she knows how to do so far is hold it properly, but we were still really impressed! they are renting to own a violin for her, but jill told us that they start her off on this little one and move up to the bigger ones as she gets older. how adorable is that? i'm pretty sure that when she learns to play that thing for real, she will easily bring her own papa to tears! there's nothing papa loves more than beautiful violin music. i've got to say, i feel the same way!
aves takes her turn while tweets, diana, and bub all pose for the camera!
tweets adds a husband to her car. check out the massive amounts of money she's got rockin in front of her- she's a regular pro at this! 
bub got to sit right next to papa and kind of smiled for this picture. kind of.
he knows i wont put up with a sort-of smile, so he smiled really big for me- so big, in fact, that some food may have accidentally come out! gross! 
aaron and keith chillin out in jills living room. and amazingly, they are not talking about cars!
i am still amazed every single day that she puts up with me...
still not sure how she puts up with him... (just kidding, brains. oops)
awe, dont they make a cute couple? she even puts up with his strange t-shirts! (actually, i loved his t-shirt- its a portrait of edger allen poe made out of ravens) 
rex, in his best freddy krueger sweater, and keith having a good time.
brains showing off his amazing new growth that is forming on his head. unfortunately you cant see it very well cause its covered in hair. he hopes it turns out to be an underdeveloped twin that he can talk to when he gets bored.
the lovely diana, looking beautiful as ever!
brains and i just rockin' out. please note the fake tie t shirt brains is wearing.
