Lightening Online

We had a lovely weekend away, spending time with Farmboy’s sister and her children at the family shack.

On Saturday, we drove down to Port Lincoln to catch up with the rest of the family for our annual “cousins birthday party”.

It ended up being somewhat of a “progressive party” in the end.  One of the families had a sick child and the other a newborn so they didn’t want to mix the 2.  We visited the family with the newborn and then went on to finish the party where it was originally supposed to be.

It was disappointing that we couldn’t all be together but we did get to see everyone and the progressive part made it all the more interesting in a way.

Someone asked if Trailer Boy and his cousin ever get sick of being given the same gifts (they’re only 3 months apart in age).

The answer was a resounding no.  They LOVE it!!!!  :)   They were given matching Spiderman jackets from Granny (which they wore constantly for the rest of the weekend).  And the sweatbands and basketballs from Farmboys brother and his family.  The sweatbands were also worn all weekend!

The cousins birthday party works out so great for my kids as their birthdays are all so close to Christmas.  The gifts they get now are all the more precious because it’s all they get.

It’s so much fun all sharing together like this and enjoying the kids as they play together and explore their new things. 

Here’s a close up of the cake I made.  It wasn’t easy to get a decent photo as the laminated photograph kept reflecting the flash:

The actual cake is supposed to look like a lolly photo frame.  We didn’t have a photograph with all the cousins so I made this collage using Picasa.  It was surprisingly simple to do and the kids all loved it (and the adults - luckily I’d made extra copies of the photograph anticipating that they’d all like one).

And so, the cousins birthday party is over again for another year.  The city cousins headed home this morning after a few more days of getting to play with their “country cousins”.  They even had a night on the farm this time and left from here this morning (after we’d spent the weekend at the beach).

We haven’t made definite plans but I think next year might be another city one (I’d like to do something like all go to the zoo together) and then the year after we’re planning a “farm” one.  We want to wait a couple of years until more of the kids are old enough to enjoy a campfire and spotlighting on the farm.

Oh, and I didn’t get any more cuddles with the newborn. :(  But I did have lovely cuddles with the 9 month old.  He was the one who’s been sick so I wasn’t sure if he’d come to me.  He’s such a happy and placid little thing though so we had some lovely cuddle time.

It’s hard to think that we won’t see any of them now for around 4 months or more.  The babies are going to change so much in that time!!!!