More time with cousins!

Wendy and her kids spent Monday and Tuesday in Maryland with Yvonne's family. On Wednesday they first visited Maurice in Philadelphia and then drove to our house. My kids were counting down the hours all day long until they arrived! It was just about bedtime on Wednesday night so they weren't able to play then, but they had two full days to play together yesterday and today. I had lesson plans for homeschooling for Thursday and Friday, but those were scrapped as it's a rare treat to have cousins at our house. I was at work yesterday. Paul mowed the lawn and took the van to Walmart for an oil change and tire rotation while Wendy was with the seven kids. I got home about 5:30pm and we had dinner together. Today I was able to stay home and spend time with my sister, nephew, and nieces. Nadia and Ian didn't want to go to art class today. They usually love art class, but time with cousins trumps just about everything. We all went to church together. Susie took pictures of plants and trees and such around the property and the other kids played in the play land.

We came home for lunch and the kids played for awhile. Wendy took Rachel, Grace, and Nadia to a trampoline park. I stayed home with the other four kids. Susie and I played a game of Scrabble. All 10 of us (Kennedys plus Benners) are sick, but it seems none of us got as severe a case of the bug as Yvonne did. Oliver had a 101 degree fever on Wednesday. Because we are all still under the weather a bit and because it might rain, we cancelled our plans to visit T&D Cats. I hope we make it there at some point! It's about 40 minutes from our house. We've lived here for ten years and haven't made it there yet. I have free passes for the kids. And we are studying those animals later this month. Paul is at work, but the only time the rest of us plan to leave the house today is to make a quick trip to CVS and the grocery store (both are less than 10 minutes from our house). None of us wanted to say goodbye to the Benners today. I love spending time with my sister, nephew, and nieces. I wish we lived closer to each other, but they are planning to come here for Christmas, which is a little less than four months away. At some point we need to schedule another trip to visit them in Chicago.