For the past couple of weeks Adam and I have been watching my darling nieces and nephew on and off while my brother Luke and sister-in-law Shannon have been gallivanting around Europe. (Yes I am jealous too!) Its always so fun for us to have visitors and the boys absolutely LOVE all the cousin time they get.
We met my Mom at McDonalds for the hand off (she and my Dad had watched them the first few days Luke and Shannon were gone) and got all the kids dinner and then let them play for an hour or so in the play place.
Love Harry’s hair!
Then the next day after playing outside all day, riding bikes, playing dress up in the playroom, and jumping on the tramp, Adam and I thought it would be fun to break into our new fire-pit and have our first weenie/smores roast with the kiddles. They LOVED it. We also brought down our new picnic table and use that for the first time as well.
That weekend I was pretty much RUNNING nonstop needing to get stuff done for girls camp – so Adam and I made a deal with the kids that if they got all the housework done while I was out running errands that we would take them to Seven Peaks that afternoon. They did AWESOME and in record time had the floors swept and mopped, bathrooms shining, rooms clean, beds made, and laundry folded. Way to go TEAM! So after lunch we all loaded into the car for some fun in the sun!
On Sunday we took all 6 kids to church with us (which was quite the adventure keeping everyone quiet and entertained) and then after church we had Mum and Smurf and my cousin Ray and our friend Mandy over (who are also helping watch the kids) for a big roast and potatoes dinner. Afterwards Ray and Mandy took all the kids home since I was going to be gone all that next week for girls camp. I was gone Monday through Thursday, had Friday to catch up on laundry and do housework, and then Saturday I had my big 15 year High School reunion that I was helping with. We ended up being gone from about 10:30 am until 11:30 that night and then again picked up Lukes kids to take them for another 4 days.
Sunday we all went to church, Adam had 3 meetings for Young Mens, and then Mum and Smurf came down and we did dinner together with them. Monday the kids had a blast pretending they were in a pirate band and made up all sorts of songs and played instruments and then performed their songs for us that night for FHE. They also started charging kids in the neighborhood .05 cents to come and see their band play which I promptly made them return when I found out what they were doing. What crack-ups! 🙂 Little Entrepreneurs!
That evening the kids also found a little gardner snake that they had fun holding and playing with for awhile until we made them let it go. It was funny to see how nervous they all got when the snake started moving and they would often freak out and run away screaming every time it did. Too cute.
Our very own Pirates of the Caribbean band!
We sure are having a great time with our cousins!
