When Cousins Come to Visit...

 ... fun things happen!

 - We get to play outside with each other...

While outside, interesting things happen. 

For one, we found this birds nest in the field next to our house.

- How we found it is kinda interesting.  We were trying to fly a kite, and Danielle was "at the wheel."  She was running backwards when all of a sudden we heard this bird chirping in a very high pitch and fast chirp.  It took a second to find her because she blended in with the ground so well. (can YOU find her in the picture off to the left?)  But when we did, we saw that she was just standing there, starting us down.  Andrew tried to make her fly away, so he sorta ran at her, but she stood her ground.  That seemed kinda strange since usually birds fly away at any little movement.  So we figured there must be a very good reason for her to stand her ground and stare down someone who is about 500 times her size!  And what better reason than a nest! 

Andrew looked around, and sure enough - there it was - all camouflage in the hay/grass on the ground, with four very cool looking eggs. We all took a look at the nest, then we left the bird and her nest alone, hoping she would not abandon it since we had been near it.  (By the way, she didn't.  Even today I saw her there.  I am keeping an eye on it, curious to see the babies when they hatch.)

-Oh, and speaking of flying a kite, that was an adventure in and of itself!  We live in a great spot for flying kites - fields all around, and we usually have some wind.  Andrew and Eldan had brought a really cool kite that is shaped like a pirate ship, so they tried to fly that.  But there were two problems.  First of all, the first day they tried to fly it, we had hardly any wind, which is unusual.  So that didn't help.  Secondly, although the kite was very cool with its ship-shape and sails and everything, it was very detailed in putting it together to get it ready to fly, and a string on it broke, so it was not able to be flown.  They tried a few days later, but it didn't work.  So we got out Liam's kite that is just a regular shaped kite with the characters from CARS on it.  Andrew went outside with the boys and Evie, and was having fun flying the kite.  The wind was great for it.  As a matter of fact, it may have been a little TOO great.  All I know is that Danielle and I were getting supper ready when Andrew came in with a sheepish grin on his face, grabbed some scissors and his keys and said he had to get the kite.  Lets suffice it to say that 30 mins later, we sat down to supper, having made a call to the power company about a kite stuck in the lines (quite a ways from our house I might add), with plans to go to Walmart the next day to purchase another kite for Liam. ;-)

When cousins come to visit... 

 ...we also get to spend time....

...watching our favorite videos...

... while eating yummy snacks!

When cousins come to visit...

... we get to have fun with someone other than our sibling!

 - Evie was always asking to hold Libby.  She loves babies!

When cousins come to visit... 

....we give each other ideas that we might not come up with on our own!  And we act out these ideas in the 3 minutes that the adults are not looking!

- The kids were playing, the daddys were playing Tiger Woods on the Wii, and the mommys were standing in the kitchen talking.  That is when the kids got the GREAT idea to gather some EVERY pillow we could find from the couches to the beds and pile them in the hallway and jump on them.  Then, when that got boring after about 1 minute, they decided to empty the laundry basket full of clean clothes on top of all the pillows to make an even higher pile to jump on.  This emptying was done one article of clothing at a time.

When cousins come to visit...

...we often give each other "sickies" too.  all four kids and one adult (you guessed it - me, Emily!) took turns throwing up sometime during the week (well, Evie was sick the night before they came, but with the same thing).

Yes, when cousins come to visit...

... lots of fun stuff happens.

Until next time...

(please excuse some of the formatting issues.  I realized that I was using the old blogger method, so I changed to the updated version and am not all "up to speed" on how it all works.  So far I like it, just have to get used to it!)