Cousin Fun

Last week, we were finally able to have cousins come visit!  My sister and her three little girls came to spend a few days at chez Ackerman.  We had plans of going and visiting a local water park (which we've tried to do for the past 2 years); but yet again it didn't happen.  Even though it is the end of July, the weather was in the low 70s -- not water weather!

We did have a day of outside play, and even discussed pulling out the trusty slip'n'slide, but I didn't believe the girls would actually play with it.  I figured I'd set it up and they'd get cold in 10 min.  Instead, I set up Uncle Steve's sprinkler (it's his because he uses it to water the yard) and let the girls run around it.  They played for longer than I thought they would.  After getting good and wet, they finally believed us that our decision to not pay for a water park visit was a good idea!

While they were here we had an afternoon of lunch and shopping, played American girls, watched movies, took a trip to our favorite ice cream stop, painted crafts, and fought over shared playing with Bean!  Of course, I got zero pictures while they were here.  I'm not very good at remembering to take photos, then put that on top of being responsible for another human being and trying to have fun with 3 nieces made it impossible.

Every time the girls come, they dream of having a huge American Girl playing party.  (I can finally say their collection is bigger than mine!)  Usually, we drag all the stuff out, set everything up to play, and then move on to some other activity.  This time, since we could only play when Bean was sleeping (she wanted to play with us and the pieces were too small and dolls too delicate) we were intentional with our doll playing time.  It was one of the best doll play times we've had, complete with dance class and a formal dance party. With many lessons on how to properly share doll clothes. . .

We always try to do some sort of "special" event when the nieces come to visit.  This trip's special event didn't disappoint -- we took the girls to "Christmas in July" at our favorite ice cream place.  Uncle Steve was the one who really wanted to go!  Pete's Ice Cream had a fundraising event that involved Christmas decorations, Santa in a summer outfit, and a ridiculously good deal on ice cream on July 25.  All six of us got our own ice cream for $5!  Can't beat that deal!

It was nice to have all the help (and entertainment) for Bean, even if there were even more lessons on sharing!  We had to set up a "help feeding" schedule so that each niece knew when it was their turn to help with Bean.  I especially loved having my sister here!  She is an obvious baby pro, and even got up and relieved me of Bean at 3am (Steve and I had already been tag teaming for almost an hour!).  One evening, she even made dinner while watching all 4 girls, so that Steve and I could go to the dentist.

(Emily-11; Bean - 9 months; Allie - 8; Gabbie - 5)

Bean loves her aunt & cousins and can't wait to see them all again soon!