The Rock Awards and Other Cousin Antics

We had a mini-family reunion last week with lots of cousins in town.  Our kids love it when that happens.  They sure do love their cousins, or "that guy in the green shirt"/"that friend," to James, because he has a hard time remembering names sometimes, even the names of his favorite little people.

They spent time watching the same movie that every other kid in America watched over and over last week, as well as a little Baby Einstein for the smaller ones.

When James saw the above picture on my phone he said, "I love this picture!"  

An unexpected super-exciting past-time the kids decided to take up was hunting for "rare" rocks.  Ella and Claire quickly dubbed themselves geologists and named each of the rocks they found.  The other kids joined in by the end of the day, each taking a bag out in the back and filling it up with every rock they could find. It was dirty and fun, and it gave us the ability to sit in the backyard enjoying the Spring day.

She calls these "the multi-colored rock" and "the shiny pink."

Aunt Katie held the "Rock Awards," and each participant picked a favorite rock to tell us about.  I'm afraid they might have wreaked havoc on the landscaping, but I suppose their grandparents won't mind.

The one-year-old set really loved venturing behind the bars.

Sweet little Karis Anne.  She's so precious.

After a suspicious quiet fell upon the house one day I went in search of the big boys.  It was sweet to find them playing together with some of KJ's old Transformers.

My kids would be really happy if every week contained two days of formal schooling and three days of informal fun activity with their cousins.