Cousin time!

My kids really, really love to spend time with their cousins. 2020 was a rough year in that department. Thankfully 2022 has been much better in that regard. At least some of the Benners have traveled out to our home from Chicago four times over the last eleven months and we went to their home once in that time span, which is in contrast to not seeing them at all for the 24 months prior to that. We were able to spend four days with Wendy and Grace and three of those days also with Rachel. Nadia and Rachel were pretty much inseparable, but they did join us for a few activities like playing Codenames, eating meals, swimming, roller skating, bowling, and a trampoline park. They created a brand new, very non-traditional cookie recipe. They called them "apple lime cookies." Their recipe included marshmallow fluff, apple pop tarts, key lime pie yogurt, whipped cream, etc. A few were eaten but no one was crazy about the final product so most of them ended up in the trash can. The girls laughed their heads off through the baking process. We weren't told what was in the "mystery" cookies until we each ate one. On Wednesday night they had a "sleepover." They always plan out their night ahead of time. They managed to stay up until 4:15am! I was soundly asleep LONG before that. Grace, Ian, and Oliver enjoyed playing together both inside and outside the house. They opted to play arcades instead of bowling on Thursday. They chose to eat at Kid's Cafe on Tuesday and Wednesday. On Tuesday they had grilled ham and cheese sandwiches, and on Wednesday they had pancakes and bacon. We had macaroni and cheese in honor of Grace on Monday and Tuesday, spaghetti and meatballs with garlic bread at Rachel's request on Wednesday, and Wendy requested white chicken chili and cornbread on Tuesday as an early birthday dinner. On Thursday we had pizza after the kids spent two hours at Kaos (laser tag, trampoline, bowling, and arcades). On Tuesday night Aunt Wendy, Grace, Ian, and Oliver watched the first Sonic movie for free through Hulu. On Thursday I splurged and paid for a rental of Sonic 2 on Amazon because it hasn't come out on DVD yet. Paul and Ian had already seen it at the theatre, but it was the first time that Oliver, Wendy, and Grace saw the movie. We might get to see them in December, and we are planning to go to their home next April. Susie is headed to college in California in September! When Ian went up this evening at 6:50pm to ask Oliver if he wanted to play Quirkle with us, he discovered Oliver was already fast asleep! Even though he didn’t stay up nearly as late as Nadia and Rachel, he was definitely tuckered out!

The Benners started driving back to Chicago early this morning. Nadia, Oliver, and I spent a few hours yard sale shopping this morning. I spent over $100, and most items were $1-2 each. We mostly purchased clothing and shoes for the kids. I also bought myself one dress for $3, six books for the kids (50 cents each), and rollerblades for Ian. Since we plan to be away during our town's community yard sales in September, I imagine I am now done with yard sale shopping for 2022. Although I often take the kids to the pool, today was the first time this summer that I got in the water as it was very hot out today. Tomorrow we're signed up as volunteers to help run the inflatables for an hour at our church, and then we'll be attending concerts and fireworks at our church. On Sunday we're having a combined outdoor service at 10:00am (combining two services into one and also two campuses into one) and then Dave and Marla (Dave works for Paul) are coming to our house for a meal.