Rebecca's Blog

When it comes to having fun, the Briggs and Mutter kids know how to have it in spades.  Get 11 kids of almost every age ranging from 1 – 14 together and you never know what will happen.  The amount of fun they can cram into a short amount of time is astounding and Memorial Day weekend was no exception.  You've already seen our beach trip and now I bring you …

SWORD PLAY!

Of course, to have sword play, we must have swords and trust me when I say, we were not lacking in swords.  We had an abundance of swords in every shape, size and color – all made from those wonderful building materials known as cardboard and duct tape.  Oh, and a little bit of wood trim – perfect for a stability and just the right amount of injury infliction.

Shall we begin?

Let me start off by introducing our lead knights: Benjamaster and Tylenator!  They save the world from each other's families.

Here's Sariah the Mighty.  With her slight figure she may look harmless, but that's only a guise.  You DON'T want to get this princess mad as her high pitched scream can cause unrepairable damage to the eardrums.

Looks like Christian the Brave may be preparing for battle.  Mighty meditation is the best way to clear the head.

Let the battle begin!

As with all sword fights, anything goes.  This proves the case when the 14-year-old pulls out a sword almost twice as long as the 11-year-olds. 

I wondered if such a stunt reeked of foul play, but luckily Queen Elizabeth proved to be up to the challenge.  She never has been one to back down from a fight.

Seeing his brother in such a predicament, Tylenator has decided to rush to Christian the Brave's aid, giving Queen Elizabeth a mighty wack on the back.

The Benjamaster won't stand for such interference, especially considering the already unfair position that his sister is in.

With a rush of adrenaline and the ferociousness of a tiger, Benjamaster rushes to his sister's side.

Thwarted, Tylenator flashes his most intimidating face in order to scare away the competition.

After much warfare, the battle is finally done and the victor walks away from the carnage.

Haha!  Seriously, the kids had so much fun eating lunch and playing by this nasty little stream.  The swords were Ben's doing.  He made one with his Daddy at home and brought it down with him to his cousins' house.  Once the cousins saw it, they all had to have one – even the 14-year-old, so Uncle Andrew took them all out back and helped them create an abundance of weaponry.  The cardboard and duct tape alone proved to be a little flimsy, so the wood trim was added to bring a little stability.  Well, hind-sight is 20/20.  As I mentioned, it also added a little more pain when it came to blows.  Once they learned to fight without hurting one another, they had a lot of fun.

Apparently I'm not doing my job as "Good Mommy," because I'm not keeping up with my blog, so – to appease the complainers – here is my next post.  Unfortunately, this post took place way back during Memorial Day weekend, so I don't have all that much to say, except that I was stupid enough to get into a bathing suit and I managed not to step on a sea urchin this time.  Seriously though, we had a fantastic time.  My kids were meant to be beach bums.  Too bad we live 300 miles away from one.

This outing was to Chrystal Cove – a beach off the Southern California coastline.  There's a bit of a hike to get down there, so it's less crowded and absolutely gorgeous!

Michael loved the sand and enjoyed letting it run through his fingers.

Ben loved playing keep away from the waves.

Elizabeth boogie boarded almost the entire time we were there.

Yep.  That's me in the horrid swimsuit that was WAY too big.  Can't believe I put this on here.  Don't expect to see anything like this on here again.

More boogie boarding.

OK, so Ryan's going to kill me for this, but there were just so many cute pictures of him and Michael on the beach.  They just HAVE to go up.  Let's face it!  If there are pictures of you with baby, they are subject to blog fodder.

This is the only close up I managed to get of Elizabeth.  She is getting more difficult to photograph as she refuses to cooperate.  In this one she is actually trying to run past me as fast as possible to try and make it so I couldn't get a picture of her.  What she hasn't figured out yet is that she can run, but she can't hide!

This picture made me sad.  There's a similar one of me as a teenager.  All this picture says to me is that my baby girl is growing up into a young woman.

When it comes to throwing sand, Josh is a pro.

I was so proud of this picture.

Remember when I said Michael loved the sand?  Well he didn't love the waves so much.

Not quite sure what she's doing, but she's cute!

Ah.  Brother and sister with their youngest children.  This actually took place first.  Actually, I believe all the pictures are in reverse order.  Oh well.

Like I said, we had a great time.  Can't wait to go again!