Haderlies + Cousin Weekends

The kids absolutely love their cousins, the Haderlies. Jenna and Kevin are raising such wonderful children and we are grateful that we get to be such a large part of each other's lives. They are each other's best friends and we do our best to nurture those friendships. We hope that they will have lifelong relationships with each other. One thing that we have been doing regularly for the past several years is to swap babysitting weekends once a month. We call these "Cousin Weekends" where the cousins get to play together all weekend and the parents take turns hosting them. This is especially fun lately because Matt and Brooklyn have moved to Utah (yay!) and Juniper has been coming to cousin weekend as well, which everyone loves. We also do a good bit of extra cousin-time/child caring when one of the sets of parents has a trip of needs some extra time. Jenna watched the kids for us last year when we took Caleb on his 6 year old trip and when David and I went to Minneapolis together. We also love to laugh (and be incredibly grateful) that when Jenna watched our kids in 2022 while we were in Hawaii she potty trained Lucy for us. Having family that we know, love, and trust - and that our kids love spending time with -has been such a blessing to us in so many ways and we do not take it for granted. 

This month we got double cousin time. We watched the Haderlies at the beginning of the month while Jenna went on a work trip with Kevin to Florida, and then Jenna watched all the cousins for the regularly scheduled "cousin weekend" at the end of the month. 

The kids had SUCH a great time at both houses - but because they were here for a little bit longer they had a particularly wonderful time together. When they get together their creativity knows no bounds. Here are some highlights: 

-Playing dress-up with Lucy's large selection of Princess dresses

-Playing in the snow: 

(Lydia made a Snowman-Hot Chocolate Holder. It was very creative and she was very proud.) 

-David's once-a-cousin-weekend appearance as "The Evil Robot". This is a game that he plays with the kids. I don't know all of the rules because rule #1 is "Mom is gone". There is almost always one meal while the cousins are here where I have a meeting or am gone for some reason and David makes it SO fun for them. I believe the general idea of the game is that he pretends to be a Robot who has poisoned their food and they have to trick him into telling them what the antidote is. (Usually a vegetable or something.) They get really into it, and they eat so well for him. It's one of those things that you can't do every meal, but once a trip is something to look forward to. 



-This time the kids decided to put on their own rendition of a "Frozen Play". They spend HOURS downstairs rehearsing. I bought the frozen soundtrack on the iPad and they played the songs over and over and over. In all honesty, I was expecting a brief synopsis of "Frozen" but when Jenna and Kevin came to pick the kids up and watch their play, we were treated to an hour-long performance that was almost word for word, scene for scene, as the movie. It was quite impressive! Imagine Caleb as Olaf, Jason as Hans, and Lucy as the most darling little Anna singing "do you want to build a snowman?" Camille and Lydia were big Anna and Elsa. Oh, and Sadie as little Elsa. 

-Later that month when we took the kids to Jennas house for the scheduled cousin weekend, we took Camille out for Ice Cream for her birthday, which was fun. I also included a photo of Juniper riding home in the ran with us. This cousin weekend was particularly tender for us. Sue passed away on January 16, and we were in the middle of mourning her loss and preparing for her funeral. Having the time together, just David and I, to process and mourn and also laugh and smile was a gift. When I came to pick up the kids on Monday morning, we ended up staying the whole day. It was so good to spend time with my sister, the kids were still having fun, and it was a wonderful way to end the weekend.