The Haderlies are HERE!

We have been looking forward to having the Haderlies come and visit us for the summer since... well since last August when they left our house and drove back home to Iowa. This year they didn't end up coming to our house until a little later than expected because we spent the first week or so with them at my parents house, then we were quarantined for two weeks because of Covid. But finally, they are here and have been here for a couple of weeks already... and we have been SO happy. Even happier because they are extending their stay with us until they can move into their new place because THEY ARE MOVING TO UTAH! Woot, Woot! 

Jenna is going to homeschool Camille this year, so we have had lots of fun homeschool adventures - but in this post, I'm just going to post about some of the fun Cousin things we've done. I love having Jenna at my house. I love spending time with her. I love listening to her. I love that she does my dishes. I wish that she could live next door to me for the rest of my whole life. But I realize that living in someone else's house is not as nice as living in your own house, so even though I wish I could make her stay forever - I'm just so happy and excited that she's living in Utah now and we will be able to see them more often. 

Okay, here are some details: 

Sadie Buddy

I love this girl. She's my buddy. When I flew back to Iowa for Jenna's birthday, I didn't realize that she hadn't seen me for almost a year - since she was one. (We Marco-Polo but it's just not quite the same.) But she warmed right up to me and let me carry her around smiling and even let me change her into her pajamas for bedtime. We've kept up that easy friendship while she's been at my house, and although she's a little clingy when Jenna is around - when it's just me and Sadie we are buddies. 

The kids LOVED playing together and were creative and rambunctious and it was exactly what playing with cousins should be. 

(Side Note about Caleb- Caleb is big for his age and he's pretty strong/physical with the other kids. My kids play rough-and-tumble all the time and even Lucy handles him fine - but the Haderlie kids do NOT play rough-and-tumble and they have a hard time knowing how to deal with it. It's okay, but it's a bummer for him because the other kids prefer to play without him most of the time. However, sometimes they hit a sweet spot and they all play so well together and it's the best.)

I mentioned that these kids get pretty rambunctious when they are together. It's kid-ideas building on kid-ideas and it can get loud sometimes. These pictures are of them jumping down the basement stairs onto a pile of cushions but their FAVORITE game is called "Boom Crash Bang". It basically entails chasing each other around with Lucy's baby walker and crashing into things and each other with much loud screeching. They love it. They also only get to play it when David is in charge of them. 

Bike Ride 

We went for a bike ride together and it was lovely. We have a nice circuit that we go on, down the nice sidewalk through the buildings to the south of us, then under the frontrunner tracks using the station tunnel, then back along the path by the golf course and stake center. It's a good loop and the kids did great, even with the steep hill at the almost-end. 

Cousin Sleepover in the Basement

The kids wanted to do this SO bad. We put it on our summer bucket list and it was a success. 

David is so good with all of the kids. He taught our Come, Follow Me church lesson one Sunday and it was a huuuuuge hit. We talked about spiritual fortifications and the attacks of satan then he had the kids go down into the basement and build the best fort that they could before he came down to attack it. He threw crumpled up paper balls trying to "defeat" them, then pretending to admit defeat, he snuck in envelopes with candy taped to them. We had a great discussion and then played "attack" again, and the second time the kids threw out the envelopes he snuck through the cracks. They asked to play the game again and again through the next week. "Can we play the Satan Game?" Oh man. We kept trying to come up with a better name for the game- but that's the one that stuck. 

Picking Plums and Plum Tarts

Our neighbor has a plum tree and let us come and pick plums. We picked over 100 plums and ate them for every meal for the week. It was THE BEST. We also made plum tarts and they were delicious and the kids were so excited and proud to make something so yummy and fancy. 

TM 2nd Ward Walkabout

We love our ward's annual tradition of holding a "breakfast walkabout" where you walk to different stations to get breakfast and see your neighbors. We weren't planning to go this year because 1-Covid and 2-Jenna had flown home to Iowa to finish packing and then move their stuff to Utah. But the kids saw the flyer so we decided that we could do the stations just by our house if we got out first thing. But once we started, it was hard for us to stop because we all just wanted to keep going. So we speed-walked the walkabout course, just grabbing the food at each station, and came home and ate the food on our porch. We got a bunch of comments about our 7 kids, which was funny, but they did really well! 

Sadie and Caleb

Sadie is just one year younger than Caleb and she is very... concerned... about his overbearing nature, but Caleb loves her anyway and when he's not getting in her space, they are great little friends. They wander around the house happily getting into all kinds of mischief together. In fact, once David truthfully observed that Caleb and Sadie are always trouble. Either Caleb is bugging her and she's upset, she's playing with one of his toys so he's upset OR they are playing together, thick as thieves, and getting into trouble together. Ha. If they are playing and it's quiet - you better go find them because for sure they are getting into something! 

Oh, Haderlies. We love you. We love having you here in our home and we wish that you'd stay forever!