Coppola Cousins Week

We had a big week this summer of all Coppola cousin happenings!

Sunday night- Bobbi and Joe had Tony and Kelly's kids
Monday- VBS in the morning; Ali had Tony and Kelly's kids in the afternoon and night
Tuesday- VBS in the morning; I had Tony and Kelly's kids in the afternoon. We invited Kelly's Des Moines friends' kids to come swim and play, too.
Wednesday- VBS in the morning; Bobbi and Joe had Tony and Kelly's kids in the afternoon. We had Lia's birthday party at our house that night.
Thursday: VBS in the morning; we had Aunt Jerri's grandkids at our house to swim in the afternoon. In the evening, Ali took the girls for a spa night at her house. I took the boys for Spiderman movie date.
Friday: VBS in the morning; Tony and Kelly's kids went home!

It was an all-out exhausting but all-out fun week! Ali and I wanted to take Kelly's kids to give her a little break from the chaos since her mom passed away. She ended up going home to be with her dad and Tony got extra hours in at work. So, it felt good to help them out!

Here are a few pics of our fun week!

And, we managed to document a lot of fun stuff too! (The posed photos were not particularly the highlight of the kids' weeks but they were great for us!)

Family love...

A few photos of my nieces and nephews that I am loving right now....I have to say that being an aunt is one of life's greatest unexpected blessings!

I spent some time in Decorah helping Tony with the kids so Kelly could go home to see her mom. It was a lot of fun! I truly enjoyed playing their mom!

 My niece and goddaughter, Grace, was confirmed! We got to see her read her faith statement too! So so proud of this beautiful girl.

 We celebrated Kelly's 40th birthday with a pool party at our house and a dinner downtown! It was a lot of fun!

And, worth mentioning in all of this - Joey got braces, we celebrated 14 years of marriage, Saylor got her ears pierced, and Saylor went to kindergarten round up. We're growing up as a whole family it seems....and the days are going by so fast. Just so thankful every day to have more days together!

At the end of the day, life is good. But between all the good, there seems to be a little cloud over all of us these days....lots of loved ones hurting physically and emotionally in our families. That's the hard stuff that you don't see on a blog or instagram or facebook....and the stuff I'd rather not remember years from now. But, for now, our prayers seem awfully lengthy and we wonder if God is sick of hearing from us. But, each day, we wake up with new hope and strength and still find time to marvel at all the blessings and marvels of God's world. Sometimes, I just wish we all felt His presence more...but I think that's what faith is. It's not being sure of anything but hopeful for everything. It's knowing that we may not fly, but if we fall, there will be a soft place for us to land. Keep on keeping on, as they say....

Coppola Christmas

One of my favorite Christmas traditions is our Christmas at Echo Valley with all of the extended Coppola family cousins, aunts, and uncles. It's fun seeing everyone, the food and drinks are great, the room is spacious, Santa comes, and there's live music! We had a great time!

The Santa was so so perfect. He was vintage and I loved that! The girls played at the kids table and danced and followed each other around the entire night. It was really a fun and relaxed evening. I could have stayed longer!!

We celebrated with my inlaws on the 26th at our house. It was our first Christmas that we hosted and it was fun to host in our new house! Everyone helped with the meal so I was just in charge of the drinks, dessert, and appetizers. I made creme brulee for the very first time, and it was great! Here are a few photos of my house before it was destroyed by 9 kids and lots of presents!!

The night was just perfect! We have all noticed how much easier holidays have been as our kids have grown older. Five years ago, it seems as if I would leave every holiday sweating and exhausted and overwhelmed with everything. You have to think about nap times and bed times and when they last ate and dirty diapers and meltdowns. Now, the kids go to their own part of the house and hang out together and come to eat and then leave again. We actually got a lot of adult alone time together just hanging out and conversing so it was really nice. We now have 9 kids under 10 years old, and only one true "baby." It's getting easier....and just when we will be smooth sailing, Kyle and Emily will disrupt it!

After our meal, we opened presents, played, talked, took photos, drank more, ate dessert and that was it! It was such a fun night!

Oh- and we celebrated this 8 year old's birthday!!

Here's to a great family Christmas!!!

Coppola Weekend in October

All of the Coppolas had a pretty "open" weekend over Halloween so we decided it was a good time to get together to celebrate multiple birthdays- Bobbi, Brynn, Davis, Nina -- and Halloween -- and a Michigan game! It was busy - but it really was low-key and relaxed actually! As the kids grow older, I've noticed that these weekends have gotten a lot easier and more relaxing....every now and then, the adults can actually sit down and enjoy each other's company. When the kids were all "little little" - it was hard to do that because we were doing chasing mostly, and not much else.

This year for Halloween- Maddox was the Grim Reaper, Joey was a hot dog, and Saylor was Spiderman girl. All of the costumes were old or hand-me-down so it was a huge score for us to spend $0 on Halloween costumes this year!

Brynn had a Halloween party for her birthday. We all had fun Halloween cocktails, sandwiches and appetizers, and went trick or treating together. It was so much fun and Ali made the decorations and food so much fun! Saylor was a real treat because she would make up her own joke for every single door we knocked on....they never made sense. The kids sprinted from house to house....

 A hot dog holding a hot dog....

This was a really fun night for us! And, since we are on Halloween, here are a couple of photos of Saylor at her Halloween parade at school. She was so proud and kept waving at me! And, a photo of Saylor and Copa together in Halloween spirit!

We also celebrated Nina and Davis' November birthdays at our house!

To top off the weekend, we all went to church together on Sunday, followed by a celebration of Bobbi's 60th Birthday at Louie's Wine Dive in Waukee. It was a really great day for Bobbi...she got so many great gifts and so many people showed up to celebrate her! It was a lot of fun!

It was a great weekend to be together....it's mostly fun watching the kids all play football in the backyard, or play video games together, or dance, or build forts, or wrestle, or play dress-up!