The Longest Hosting Long-Weekend Ever!

Between Thursday 5/24 and Monday 5/28 twenty-six people had meals at our house and seven people slept over. The most incredible thing is that with some help from our guests and... I don't know... some magical organizational and cleaning force or something :), our kitchen remained clean nearly the whole time! Here is how it went down:

• Thursday 3/24, 8:30 p.m. - We served dinner to a couple from Brazil who were visiting their daughter in the nearby boarding academy (I had the main dish ready -- pinto beans for a Mexican themed meal -- but we didn't know they were coming for sure until 7:30 pm). We talked until nearly midnight. Earlier in the day friends who had never visited called to ask whether they could come to spend the weekend and we said they could come.

• Friday 3/25: I drove three hours round-trip for my LASIK surgeon visit, stopping at the grocery store on my way back. After cleaning the house with K and preparing the guest bedroom downstairs, at 8 pm I went to the "consecration" ceremony of the academy's graduation where I met our guests (a couple & their daughter, the son stayed in the dorm with his graduating friends). They got home close to 11 pm and we ate a light meal and chatted until close to midnight because we hadn't seen them in two years and this was their first visit to our house since they moved to the U.S. many years ago (we visited them multiple times).

• Saturday 3/26: K's birthday -- we gave him his presents in the morning, then got ready to leave.
• 9 am: we drove 1h30 mostly on the highway, but then up the mountains to Brazilian churches' camp meeting. Kelvin felt sick in the mountain roads and vomited his whole breakfast out the car window. Luckily only the outside of the car got dirty. We had a nice day there, I brought a picnic lunch, but forgot a change of clothes or swim-clothes for the boys and they were mad that they couldn't play in the creek or pond.
• 3 pm: we went to hike part-way up Crabtree Falls (supposedly the highest falls on the East coast), but couldn't make it all the way to the top because of the wedding in the evening.
• 4:50 pm: began our drive back home, afraid that we'd be late for the wedding.
• 7:05 pm: we arrived at the wedding, just to find out that we were absurdly over-dressed and that folks in this rural VA area don't dress up for weddings -- especially outdoor ceremonies (most importantly, their kids don't dress up, so ours were really upset at us AGAIN!).
• 9:40 pm: we get back home from the wedding and K has to eat because he barely ate anything in the reception (there were plenty of refreshments: fruit, vegetables, sandwiches), but he didn't eat much.
• 12:20 pm: we were already in bed when we heard the front door open and our friends come in. 

• Sunday 3/27: After a good breakfast with our friends, I left to go to the commencement ceremony, the guests soon followed and K & the boys only got there close to the end at noon.
• 1:30 pm: our guests came home (this time with the son), with the intention of leaving right away, but we quickly prepared lunch for them with the leftover food from Thursday and some cans of beans and corn and we all ate lunch.
• 4 pm: they left.
• 5 pm: I got a call from our friends from Philadelphia saying they'd be arriving at 12:30 am. They had contacted us earlier to stop by over the weekend, but had said in their latest email from the week before that the drive from Atlanta, GA to our house was too long. Well, it looked like they'd changed their minds! 
• 8 pm: We did some cleaning and I changed the sheets in the guest bedroom. I started cooking beans (black this time, since we'd eaten pintos on Thursday and earlier that day) for our visitors the next day and two kinds of a tapioca dessert (with grape juice and passion fruit juice) that our Brazilian friends love.
• 11:30 pm: friends call to say they're running late and should arrive by 1 am.
• 1:10 am: friends arrive and we talk for about half an hour before heading to bed.

• Monday 3/28: my boys got up before 8 am, eager to play with their friend, who was sleeping downstairs. I groggily got up and asked not to make any noise and play quietly until the guests were up.
• 9:20 am: Guests got up, boys started playing with Legos and we had breakfast.
• 11 am: We all drove in their car to see the Academy and walked around in the buildings. They even got to see the Elementary School, since it was open because the custodian was in there cleaning.
• 11:40 am: we arrived back home and our friends left for Philadelphia. 
• 12:20 pm I called one of our Brazilian friends who said that they'd be arriving in one hour. 
• 1:30 pm: The first group of Brazilian friends arrived. One couple, their two toddlers, four young women and one young man.
• 2 pm: we all had lunch -- using all disposable plates and utensils, of course!!
• 3 pm: They left and a few minutes later, the second group of Brazilian friends arrived (two families of four whose kids are just a year or two older than ours). 
• 3:40 pm: after we chatter for a while and the kids played downstairs, we served them lunch (after I made a bit more rice). 
• 5 pm: they left for Philly and New Jersey. K went to take a nap
• 6:40 pm: K woke up from his nap and I called some friends so we could meet up in town and have dinner to celebrate K's birthday.
• 7:40 we picked up our friend J and on the way I called our dear friends who live in town -- they are a young couple who is moving away :( -- so we could meet up in about 20-25 minutes.
• 8:10 pm we parked in downtown and went to wait for our friends in the designated spot (they don't have a cell phone!), but they didn't arrive until 8:45!
• 9:10 pm: we went into this delicious tea and sandwich restaurant to eat and it was great!! It was a lovely day to end the weekend, but we were yawning (and the boys sleeping) all the way back home.

• The End!