Cousins

The day Ajay made up our lunch (for his Boy Scout assignment) we had Paige and Kyleigh over for the day.  It was the Monday school was out for Veteran's Day.  It got pretty hectic that morning.

My sister and I have discussed it.  Our children are normal children until they get with their cousins.  Then they act like they've all escaped from the zoo.  It is complete chaos when the cousins get together and we don't know why.  They don't get like this with their friends.

That morning the kids were having a fine time jumping from a wall onto a couch.

Can you see that bit of wall behind the couch?  It is to be used for decoration, not as a spring board for cannon balls.  But spring board it was.  I quickly put a stop to the jumping and Alex, Ajay, Kyleigh and Paige all got a bit of quiet time on the couches.

However, a couple of rascals felt they needed to be clowns and make everyone else laugh so I kept adding time.  At one point I asked "Who wants another minute??" and TWO children raised their hands.  I was pretty hot at this point so I asked "Okay, how much more time do you want?"  One child answered "one" minute, while another child put up 5 fingers.

That child got removed from the situation for the remainder of the quiet time.

Once their time was finally up I figured they all needed a more structured playtime.  Don't leave these children to their own devices if you ever have them all in the same room.  Please learn from my mistakes.

While Ajay painted the cardboard for his collection presentation the other kids worked on some paint projects also.  Well, not Aren.  I haven't gotten brave enough to give Aren a brush and paint.  I'm sure he'd love it but I'm not ready to wash paint off of our popcorn ceilings yet.  As it is he sucks the ink out of our markers.  Ick.

 

They then all went outside to play in the fresh air.  Yes, please go work off that excess energy outside.  While they were outside I made up a quick batch of no-cook play dough.  I divided it into equal balls.  I may or may not have gotten a little anal about it and used my scales.  Each ball weighed exactly 5 ounces.  This way, no one could argue that someone else got more play dough.

When they were done playing outside I had them sit at the table and pick their favorite food coloring gel.  Even our neighbor, Makayla, (who happens to be in Ajay's class at school) got permission to come in and join the fun.  And I hope no parents were too angry with me when I sent them home with a colored play dough ball and hands to match. 

Paige and Makayla loved the vivid pink.  Kyleigh got lavender, Ajay got orange, Alex chose red.

The girls came over the day before Thanksgiving, too.  But that is a post for another day.  (Just keep in mind what this day started out like.)