Week of June 7 - June 13, 2010

Last week, our cousins came to stay and play! Not all of our cousins, of course. For this special week, just the daughters of my sister, Margaret. Becca and Emily, twins age almost 11, and Elizabeth, age 8. Add three more girls and oh, the joy, at the Skinner home!

Throughout the week, the girls favorite thing to do was to practice and perform skits for all of us. Fortunately, this was accomplished with a minimum of fighting over who got which part, who was interrupting and who was not, who was being rude, or silly, or who was not being serious!! Sarah was usually director and she did well getting everyone involved and soothing the flareups. These events were held exclusively under the shade of the walnut tree in our backyard, until Thursday when the weather turned stormy and the theatrical endeavors transferred to our family room. Some of the plays to which we were treated were Little Red Riding Hood and The Three Little Pigs vs. The Big Bad Wolf, Goldilocks and Silverlocks, Rumplestiltskin, The Frog Prince, and The Little Red Hen. The costumes and dramatic interpretations were all of the highest order. It was great fun!

On Wednesday, I also took them to the craft store. Sarah wanted embroidery floss for making friendship bracelets and everyone thought it would be fun to go. I was unprepared for this venture, though. I will forever remember standing immobilized in the middle of the craft store, bombarded by questions "Can we get this?" "Can I have that?" "How much does this cost?" It completely wiped my mind. I had to forcefully bring myself to the task, block everyone out, and ask myself, "What do I need to do so I can get out of here???" Somehow I managed to get Sarah her floss and also find something that would be fun for everyone and not be very expensive. We bought a bucket of those plastic beads which they arrange into colorful shapes and then are ironed into melted permanence (Sarah did that, too!). We also got everyone a 69 cent visor. Fun, fun, fun! Now we were really resembling some sort of impomptu day camp!

This was also the week of Art City Days for Springville. So, the carnival came to town! This year, it was again at the park behind our house, and we walked there again. Savannah stayed home with Beth and Ben. (I guess she has "been there, done that!") Then I spent a million dollars so everyone could go on at least three rides. (Just kidding! It just felt like it!) We also won two frogs and bought a pvc bow and arrow. A great time was had by all!

On Friday, the same crew went down to the lawn outside the art museum where (as part of Art City Days) they have tables set up for kids to try different types of crafts. They spent about two hours there and came back with twisted balloon hats, paper plates full of glue and food coloring, painted faces, and other assorted pictures and crafts. Fun!

Late Friday night, my sister (the mom of these cousins!) showed up to reunite with her sweet daughters and enjoy the ending festivities of Art City Days. Lucky for us, there was no rain during the parade and we could still go (though it did remind Margaret and I of when we were kids and we went to the Memorial Day Parade in Illinois every year in the pouring down rain to watch Pete and Amy march! Oh, the memories!) This was much better. Although, it was the first year I didn't have a little one on my lap! :(

Sarah and Beth sat together.

The twins were too excited to even look at the camera for a picture. Plus, they needed to run out and grab candy!
And my sister, Margaret, got some snuggle time with Benjamin. Isn't he cute in that hat??
That night, the rain also stopped long enough for fireworks. So accomadating, wasn't it?? It was a spectacular end to a spectacular week!

The Gillespies left on Sunday and there was much mourning in our house! Sarah declared how boring the whole rest of the summer would be without her cousins and Megan cried herself to sleep. Mariah had written a two page letter before the sun even set!

Ah well. It was fun while it lasted and until the Gillespies find a way to move close to us, I guess we shall have to find a way to survive!