4th of July Cousin Crab Feast . . .

Not many family gatherings going on this summer so I invited all my cousins down to the house for a 4th of July Crab Feast. Good times as usual with the fam.

Thursday, the invasion began. After I got home from work, Aim and Terry and the kids got in, shortly followed by Gail, so we headed off to American Flatbread for dinner. Then on our way home we stopped by the town center for the first Brambleton summer concert of the year which Terry described as something like boozin' it up with your babies. It was a reggae band with a white lead singer, but they actually sounded decent. Ran into the Brambleton usuals. Afterwards stayed up late with Gail until Karynn's flight (which was delayed several times) finally arrived at 2 in the morning.

Noah and Megan playing in the loft . . .


Friday morning, Mae invited us over to her house for breakfast so we had blueberry pancakes while the kids played.

Noah's thug look . . .


Then Terry was off to work at Nationals Park while the rest of us waited for the NY/NJ caravan to arrive. They, on the other hand, were apparently taking family restroom breaks . . .



Once Lynn, Lor, Jay-R, Chris, Kimmie, Alv, James, Kristine, and Sophia arrived we made plans for the afternoon. Paulie arrived to meet up with the gang and then we were off to Five Guys for lunch and then the Leesburg outlets for some steals.

Jack and Sophia waiting for some yummy burgers . . .


The BCBG outlet was crazy. The fitting room line was too long so people were trying on clothes out in the store! We joined in on the action and I scored a cute black cocktail dress for 75% off . . .

The rest of the shopping trip I strolled around with Alv and Noah but didn't find any more buys. After the shopping expedition, it was clear that going out in a group for a dinner would be quite the undertaking so Mike headed downtown for dinner and drinks with Alv, Jay-R, Gail, Karynn, Paul, and Eric while the rest of us ordered in and helped Lor with her Lemon Lush.

Taking over Adams Morgan . . .


Karynn's got dance floor skills . . .


The "little" cousins are legal! . . .

The night owls . . .

Late night eats - Jumbo Slice! . . .

Saturday - the DC crew rolled back in super late after hitting up U Street and Adams Morgan. Mike woke me up and told me Katrina and Jun were downstairs. I didn't believe him (both had not planned on coming down) but I went downstairs to check anyway and was pleasantly surprised to see Katrina in my kitchen eating a jumbo slice! Yea - we're almost complete! Tried to go back to sleep, but instead stayed up chatting with Jun, Katrina, and Gail until Noah woke up and my day had to begin. After Noah was changed and fed, I whipped up breakfast for EVERYBODY (yup all 18!) all by myself. I was pretty proud of myself AND I think it turned out pretty good :) On the menu was home fries (I made 5 pounds!), two florentine frittatas, chicken maple sausage, and fresh fruit.

The leftovers . . .

After breakfast I had to run a couple of last minute errands for the crab feast while Mike picked up the crabs at the downtown seafood market. I didn't think I had that much to do but at one point the house seemed pretty hectic. Luckily, I had many sous chefs to help out with everything from making the iced tea to stripping the corn to balling some melons to watching Noah! Had a couple of snafus - the drink dispenser leaked and so did the kitchen ceiling! But all in all, everything turned out great.

Noah and Mommy celebrating 4th of July . . .

Stripping the corn . . .

Chris and Kimmie making the watermelon salad . . .

By 4:00 we were ready to chow down on crabs, ribs, jerk chicken, potato salad, pasta salad, chips and salsa, grilled corn, watermelon salad, lemon lush, and strawberry rhubarb pie!

We had 1 1/2 bushels of crabs . . .

and 5 racks of ribs . . .

Mae brought over a little water mat for the kids to play in and they had a blast. The afternoon was filled with cornhole, basketball, a trip to the playground, and of course a lot of food!

Jason and April brought over fireworks and so once it got dark, we lined up in the backyard for the "show". Mike was the fireworks master and the kids had their first sparklers - too cute.

All lined up for the show in the backyard . . .

Sparkler fun . . .

Trying to spell MAF . . .

Happy 4th from us . . .

Sunday, almost everyone headed out pretty early. I packed up a bag of crabs for everyone to take home to their parents cause we had a ton of leftovers. In true Raagas style, we polished off the dessert for breakfast :).

Sophia pinching Noah's cheeks cause he's "so cute" . . .

One last pic before the gang heads out . . .

Gail, Paul, and Karynn hung out for the day until Karynn's flight around 8. The locals came over again for dinner since we still had a whole rack of ribs we didn't cook the night before. After everyone finally left, Noah was looking for everyone. I think he missed all his cousins, aunties, and uncles already. I was exhausted. Good thing I had off the next week to recover! This was too much fun. I think we'll have to make it an annual event OR everyone could just move to Brambleton :)