Cousin's Camp

Cousin's Camp is officially over tonight! That was one very busy week of my life, but I think it will make very good memories for my kids. We all love when Cass and Abby come. We planned the whole week out last Sunday night, and we pretty much stuck to it (even the meals), except for the swimming parts. Here's what we did:

Monday- Shopped for our week's supplies and took Nathan to Urgent Care (see previous post) We all made Fajitas for dinner, I really like the kids to cook with me when they all get together because it's easier (and when it's not I think well, they really need to learn how to cook). They are pretty good helpers most of the time. Then we had FHE. Abby did the lesson and read us a very long story from the friend, she is super smart especially for a 1st grader. Nathan was in charge of FHE, and when he is in charge we always end up having chocolate fondue with bananas, pretzels, strawberries, and marshmellows for dessert, that's funny how that happens huh! Then we played the Farming Game for hours, really it was the continuation of the Farming Game that we had played for hours before dinner!

Tuesday- Abby and Nathan made us breakfast. Pancakes and fried eggs. Abby did an amazing job flipping a mountain of 30+ pancakes, especially since it was her first time. Nathan didn't break an egg yolk, but he wasn't prefectly happy with them. He thought he cooked them a little too much (it was so cute). They spent most of the day playing games and preparing for the Talent Show (it was mandatory for everyone to participate). But all of them were super excited for it since Sunday night when I first mentioned it. We made pizzas for dinner. My sister's girls have an experienced palatte so we had more toppings then usual. But it got the boys way more into it and they made massive pizzas. The toppings were like 4" high before we put them in the oven. They ate almost all of their pizzas. By Tuesday night my sister was stopping in Austin for 1 night after her anniversary trip so she was there to participate (she had to it was mandatory after all!). But really she stole the show in our Talent Show!

It was really fun to have her here for that. At least someone laughed at my jokes. Can you believe I asked them what History teachers do when they get together? (Make Dates! Ha, HA) and they totally didn't get it. Or who made the round table? (Sir Cumference) Or my favorite: Why did the knight go running around screaming for a can opener? (He had a bee in his suit of Armor) Who wouldn't think I was hilarious??? Anyway we dressed up all crazy and funny and put make up on the kids. Except Darin, he wouldn't let us touch him.

Here were our acts:
Abby-Gymnastics
Nathan- Sang Mama Mia! (He was going to do Super Soccer something but it rained and the talent show ended up being inside)
Darin- Super Lego 3 (He built a lego thingy in front of us)
Cassidy- Magician Cass & Abby- Maiden Sisters (skit)
Nathan & Darin- Tickle Bros.
Rose, Abby, Cass, Darin, Nathan- Hostage Skit
Me- Miss Alika's History Class
Sister- Reading of the Paperbag Princess
Rose- Dancing


Wednesday- Cassidy treated us to scrambled eggs and toast for breakfast, it was nice leaving someone alone in the kitchen to cook for a change. Then Nathan and Ginger had well checks at the pediatrician so my sister took Cass, Abby, and Darin swimming. Then it was non-stop from when I got home from the Dr. appts. to pick up Ken from the airport, stop at the scout shop to get Darin a new cubscout uniform (Nathan's getting the old one, I'm glad I didn't sew any of those badges on). Then a 40 minute break at McD's for dinner, and on to Cubscouts and Activity Girls at the church. Thanks to Sister Nguyen, she even let Abby attend with Cass and make a rice neck roll thingy even though she isn't 8 yet, it totally made her day! My ward is getting pretty used to seeing the girls when they are in town, and spoiling them. Seriously, a whole full size candy bar for saying the closing prayer in Brother Townsend's primary class. Lollipops in sharing time. I hope my nieces will like their ward next Sunday.

Thursday- This time it was Darin's turn for breakfast and he made us Cream of Wheat and toast. Not too bad, since he did it all by himself and it's his favortie breakfast that Ken makes. We hung out around the house, the kids went crazy with paper airplanes everywhere. I'm still finding them in strange places. We left that afternoon to go downtown to Zilker Park. Every summer they put on a musical. This year was Beauty and the Beast. You sit on the hill and watch the show. It was fun. Cassidy seemed kind of disappointed I think she thought it was like when we saw Lion King (okay because I told her it was a musical like the Lion King). When we were camped out on our sleeping bags for 2 1/2 hours before it started and it was warm in the shade and she did not look happy at all, it wasn't quite the air conditioned, nice comfy chairs in the Bass Concert Hall.

We ate some KFC and then took the kids swimming in Barton Creek. It's a hybrid between pool and really large creek that doesn't really move. It's hard to explain but the kids really weren't into the slimy concrete floor and the water was freezing, but at least we weren't sweasting. Then Ken treated us to the best sno-cones ever. Coming from an expert sno-cone taster, HA! But the ice didn't chunk up into big huge pieces, the texture was perfect, the flavors delicious, and they didn't skimp on the syrup either.

After it got dark the show started. It was really good. All of the kids got into it. Rose especially loved the dancing. She danced when they danced and would yell out some of the lines the actors said. Ginger crashed and me and Ken thought finally we can snuggle up to each other. Umm, yeah then Rose wanted to be right in the middle of our laps, then she calmed down and Ginger woke-up and wanted to pull her sisters hair, then Rose was mad and Ginger was tired...you get the picture. I can imagine in my head that it could be a pretty romantic date without 6 tag-alongs. It was fun though and the kids ended up really loving it. We didn't end up getting home until 12:30 am.

Friday- I woke-up to a call sent from Heaven! It was my Dad saying that he was done with his school project and wanted to play with the kids. The plan was to take the kids to the Austin Science and Nature Center at Zilker Park. I wasn't looking forward to it since it has low tables with microscopes and sclaes on them for the kids to use. And Rose wants to be in there and mess with them, but I can't keep enough of a handle on her with Ginger in my arms too. So it was going to be tricky. But my dad took the older 4 and Rose too.

I stayed home with Ginger and did some laundry. After she fell asleep I picked up a book from Barnes and Nobles and then went to get my nails done. It was really a nice break. Unfortunately they locked my keyes in the car, so I drove down and unlocked it. I got to visit with Reianna though while I was downtown and that was fun. The kids were all having a ton of fun and my dad took them out to eat and then back to his place to watch Beauty and the Beast.

After we got home, it was time to start our Harry Potter Movie Marathon. They watched 1,2, and 3 (technically they didn't watch hardly any of 3 since we told them to turn the TV off at 2 am, and they still whined, can you believe it!) And of course since they are my kids, what do they want to go along with their movie marathon. A ton of snacks, right. But of course the cute little monkeys don't say snacks they say "Let's have appetizers for dinner!" I should seriously reconsider some of the things I am teaching them... They probably wouldn't be so particular about their "appetizers" if they didn't have a mom who kept her panty stocked with fancy toothpicks with flag things on them. The toothpicks were a request too, BTW.

Here was the Movie Marathon Menu
Apple Slices with Homemade Caramel Sauce
Finger Sandwhiches
Chicken Bites
Carrots and Olives with Ranch
Little Smokies with Barbeque Sauce
Cheese Cubes (it had to be cubes)
Deviled Eggs
Popcorn
Various Candy (chocolate Covered Raisens, Cookies and Cream Candy Bars, Air Heads, and Reeses Peanut Butter Cups)


Saturday- We woke-up at 8:30 am, but Ken jumped out of bed saying, "I can't believe it's 9:30!". I'm still waiting for him to replace the hour of sleep he took away from me. Ken took the kids outside for Work Saturday--they mowed the lawn and pulled weeds (at least something got accomplished around the house this week). Then we ate breakfast and got ready to go to Volente Beach. We were at the water park from 1-6:30 pm. It was alot of fun and my Dad came with us. It's actually kind of nice having my mom out of town this week. We got alot more fun time with Papa then we usually do. And his attention isn't all on her. No offense to my mom, but when she is around he only has eyes for her. We played in the Lagoon mostly. Rose loved the slide. She must have done it 80 times, she would slide down and want to go again immediately. I said does it make you happy. And she said "The slide makes me happy!" It was so cute. It was nice the older kids are big enough and can swim well, so they could come and go as they pleased so long as they had a buddy. My Dad went down the U-Shaped slide with Cass and then with Abby. Cass screamed, but Abby didn't. There was no talking the boys into going on the big slide.
Ginger was just about to fall asleep in the pool. Papa took her out and then took a nap too. Rose loves to lean her body back into the water with her legs wrapped around your waist and spin. I was doing this with her and she had this unbelieveable smile that made me feel like I was her favorite person in the world. And then two seconds later she started putting her favorite finger in her mouth and closing her eyes. I took her out of the pool and she crashed within a minute, I slept too for about 30 minutes. It was a good day!

Afterwards we got our free frosties from Wendy's if you have your Volente Beach bracelet. The kids loved that, then we went to Sam's Club to pick up Pizza and a few groceries. We came home and unpacked then pretty much crashed. The kids started Harry Potter 3 over again, and Ken and I fell into our bed.


It has been a very long week and I am so very sleep deprived. The kids would stay up until midnight pretty much every night. And they have been sleeping in the Family Room (don't ask me why, except because they wanted to) for the past 4 nights. The Family Room is right on the other side of my bedroom. So I am excited about having a little bit of space. The only fatalities we had was Nathan's finger, the fridge water thing broke, and my favorite salt shaker that I got from Carl got broken. I don't have too much laundry to do since I washed like 4 loads a day. My house is reasonably clean unless you count my family room, living room, game room, and the boys bedroom which are full of like 15 different forts (again don't ask me why, it just makes them happy). So all in all I would say it was a really Great Cousin's Camp!