A Cool Cousins Weekend

We had Garrin for the weekend while his Mom and Dad played coach/whip cracker/carb-loader chef/personal trainer/cheerleader for Hannah and Connor who swam in meets on Saturday and Sunday. James was THRILLED to have Garrin over, and said "Hi Gar-yen, hi Gary-en, hi Gar-yen!" all weekend!

We picked up the precious cargo at about 5pm on Friday evening. We headed home and had yummy mac and cheese for dinner (James had mac & mac since he won't allow anything yummy to touch his noodles!) Then the boys settled in and played (fought) laughed (screamed) all night with trains, blocks and assorted other cool stuff.

James is a little on the sensitive side, and Garrin likes to have all 27 train cars to himself, so it was tough going for a while. BUT--they were able to work it out and settle down to putting on the Indy 500 around and around the kitchen.

The whole evening I was thinking to myself, "Am I ready for two kids?" "Is Chris ready for two kids?" But they were AWESOME and I love all of the extra smiles, giggles, hugs and kisses that come with two little ones.

The cutest thing was when I took James up to bed and he waved bye bye and said "night night" and "luv you Gar-yen" to his cousin. Makes a mom proud!


Here they are Saturday morning gearing up for their big day, which would include a birthday party for one of the little girls in playgroup. They are enjoying "cancakes" as James calls them.


The birthday party took place in this big room that was filled with bouncy houses and bounce playgrounds with slides, tunnels, climbing walls, and all sorts of neat stuff for little boys.

BUT--Garrin was NOT THRILLED. It took him about 40 minutes to warm up to the idea (with some help from his Uncle Chris) and then he had a BLAST.


Check out Garrin sliding in the last pic on the right above this caption. I think his face says it all!


Chris had a good time, too. He is such a great Dad and Uncle!


James was very excited to see that the theme for the party was Elmo. Here he is saying "Elmo!"


Look, Gini! See this kid? It is your boy and he TAKES NAPS (if you tucker him out long enough, throwing him repeatedly down the slide, bouncing him up and down a hundred times, chasing him all over the place and stuffing his face with pizza and cake!) Ok, but if you bring him home and let him sleep for another hour, he doesn't go to bed until after S&L. (So maybe I gave him too much cake/gummy bears/sour patch kids/cotton candy/chocolate??!!!)


After all that playing, the boys needed a nice bath. They had tons of fun splashing each other, until Garrin saw a red piece of fuzz HUGE KILLER BUG (uh, did Hannah teach him that?) and had to get out of the tub. All the while, James is like "What the heck is the problem? Come on and let me finish washing your hair!"


And here they are, all cozy and clean and ready for bed, giving a BIG, SLOPPY night night kiss to each other. Now THIS will be the best pic to show at their weddings!