Storming the palace

B's friend from Ohio, L, was back in town this weekend. Andy and I and the girls were out shopping (and they had a golf lesson) and we returned to a house full of boys - B, L and the usual IR and IB. When E got back from her golf lesson, she (unknown to me) texted L's brother, M, and before I knew it, three high school boys were standing on my front porch. I asked whether they were here to see L or E and they responded, "We're here to storm the palace." Um ... OK. I told them everyone was in the basement - a total of nine kids counting our youngest who can't stay away from L when he's in town - a large part of the reason she didn't know he was coming until he was sitting in our living room. About a half-hour later, they decided it was time to go get dinner. Here's a horribly blurry picture of the eight of them on their way to Culver's:

We didn't let L tag along with them even though they promised "we won't lose her." She was mad until the doorbell rang and three of her neighborhood friends came over to play. Fortunately they left by time the group of older kids returned. They played more video games while the oldest group was looking up vidoes on the computer. IR left first, the high school boys followed a bit later. B, L and IB were up till 11:30 p.m. They couldn't sleep over, though. L's mom made it clear she wanted him at the house where they were staying so he'd actually get some sleep. Good idea!