.reasons to smile.: Cousin Sleepovers, Old Used Boat, Basketball, Cottage

The last couple weeks have been full of LOTS of fun!!

We were lucky enough to have my sister's kids with us for a week while her and her husband were out of town. It was so much fun to have sleepovers on weekdays!

It's weird, but I felt more in control with seven kids here than I do when it's just our four. I felt obligated to have supper figured out (which never happens!) and I had to stay on top of dishes and keeping the counters cleaned off. Can't really just wing it with supper for nine people as easily as you can with six. Ha! And, laundry... well, nothing changed with that! ;)

First night was pizza! Thought we'd do that more, but amazingly we didn't!!

[Love these kids!]

Girls ready for their first bath of the week... they were so excited to have their (well, Kate's) suits and flip flops on! [Not sure why they needed flip flops... but, they thought it was fun!]

[Nate is ready for Spring and our family baseball games in the front yard. No more bad pitches getting lost in bushes with this backstop!]

It doesn't take much to get me excited... and here is a great example. When I've had my sister's kids before for a night I usually have paper cups and write their names on them to help keep them all straight... and prevent us from going through many, many cups. When they got here I realized I didn't have any paper cups. Then I thought... hey, I can put their names on regular cups with my fun tape. And, then an even better idea... put their names on tape and put it on the backsplash! I was so excited about this and plan to use it lots!!!

Nevie had her cloths all packed and Kate found a way to match her almost every day. It was fun to see what she came up with each day!

[Milestone: Nate pouring milk in his own cereal for the first time!]

[Yellow and striped pants...]

[cousins just chilling]

[tank tops and shorts for bed]

[Rachel and Abby watching a movie... they had a lot of fun hanging out every night!]

[This was a good matching job!]

[definitely needed cinnamon rolls one morning!]

[One of Nate's cards that he wrote me in school... love him!]

[Ready for school... and, actually early!! My kids were excited not to have to take the bus all week for a change. :)]

[This is what it looked like picking up the kids after school!]

[Nate's note asking me to get him deodorant. So cute!]

[Rachel had to make a Mexican food for school... of course we found some cookies to make!]

[Last day of school pick up!]

We loved having them so much!! All the kids were so good! I TOTALLY could have had seven kids... I could manage them, but probably not afford them! :)

Friday night the cousins were gone and Nate wanted to go to the library. So, we did. We closed down the library! He wanted to get pig and fox books and we found some!

Then, Saturday, since we actually had no basketball, we told the kids we were going to MN to look at an old, used boat. They were not too happy about driving 4-1/2 hours to look at an old boat. But, I told them it would be fun and a good warm-up for our drive to Alabama for Spring Break. They were still not excited.

[They did smile for my picture though.]

So, this is what the "old, used boat" looked like! Puppies! We are getting a puppy in about a month and we got to go meet the entire litter of eight. They were 4 weeks old and so, so cute! Kids were very excited! Huge thanks to the breeder who played along with our boat story... she was great!! The only one a little disappointed there was no boat was Nate. After looking at the puppies... for almost two hours... and heading back to the car he said "where is the boat?" Felt kind of bad, but know he's going to love the puppy when we can finally bring her home!

So, Kate is our "little mom" and it shows in this video. https://youtu.be/yjRbjJgD9yc She was actually kind of upset to see her own reaction when I showed her this video, because she said she really is excited... which I completely believe. But, this shows her true heart and caring nature. You can see her mind going a million miles a minute thinking... oh, boy, now I have to help all these kids take care of a puppy, too?? She is so cute!

[cute yawning puppy!]

[glad Eli was able to feel at home... geez]

[one of my favorite pictures!]

So, Saturday we were driving for about nine hours round trip... but, so worth it!

Then, Sunday... basketball. Eli and Rachel both had tournaments. I was with Rachel, so have pictures from hers. They took 3rd place and did great! This was Rachel's last tournament of the season, which was sad. She has a great team... all these girls are respectful, hard-working, dedicated and have a strong work ethic. Can't wait for next year!! Thank you coaches!

[left-hander struggles...]

[it's starting to get nicer out!]

Eli had his Spring Program this week. The kids did great and super proud of their music teacher. It was very well done!! I was sitting next to Mike's mom during it and when she first saw Eli up there she could not believe how much he looked like Mike when he was younger. I could see the emotion she was feeling as she saw him. It was pretty special to see. You could tell it was bringing back memories of her baby being in 5th grade... neat.

[Eli is in the middle row and in the center... white t-shirt, no smile. ;)]

[This was a first... Nate must have unzipped his jacket and then slipped off with his backpack still on!!]

Needed to run up to the cottage to get a few things for Spring Break... like beach towels. It was a nice sunny day when I got up there. It was about 47 degrees... but, with the sun (and out of the wind) it felt much warmer. Cannot wait until nice weather is here!!! I couldn't believe how much snow was not he deck. Took some time to shovel it off, so it could melt away faster... I'll do anything to help it feel more like Summer there!