Together Again

We had a great visit from Carter's cousins and their parents a couple of weekends ago. I was a little nervous about how our house would handle four guests - two of them under five - but the entire weekend was nothing but fun. This post is long overdue but I am going to try to make up for its tardiness with lots of pictures - and BIG pictures at that. I have been playing with some HTML trying to figure out how to make our pictures show up bigger and I think I figured it out - so please let me know if anything looks funny on your end.

OK - back to the fun. They arrived on Friday afternoon and had just a teeny tiny bit of energy stored up from their ten hour drive to get here. I love this picture because it reminds me of how much laughter and excitement there was as soon as they arrived.

From Cousins - June 2009

After a yummy (but warm) dinner outside by the grill - it was bath time for all three boys. Jack won the mohawk competition hands down.

From Cousins - June 2009

Robert was especially busy Saturday morning...
He made Adam wheel him around on the tricycle...

From Cousins - June 2009

He climbed a tree...

From Cousins - June 2009

And then made Adam climb it with him...

From Cousins - June 2009

Then he decided to help Adam water our garden so he carried the rain barrel watering cans to the plants on the tricycle. Pretty clever, huh?

From Cousins - June 2009

On Saturday afternoon we celebrated Carter's first birthday with a small party. Have I mentioned before how much Carter LOVES balloons? Whenever we go to the grocery store they have big red SALE balloons on every aisle and every display. As soon as we walk through the doors he starts reaching for them and his face lights up. There was really no decision to make when it came to the party theme. I even found a larger than kid size Elmo balloon which was a big hit for several days.

From Carter's 1st Birthday

I also bought a small disposable helium tank that filled 25 or so balloons. Many thanks to Warren for filling them all with air - he wins the brother-in-law of the year award - even though he swallowed some of the helium. :) Warren and Adam also took a stab and making animal balloons. They made some pretty cute dogs, crowns, and even swords. Thanks guys! I think the kids enjoyed it but we also got some pretty good laughs during the learning process too.

On Sunday we visited our botanical garden for a picnic and for sprinkler time. I think Robert might have been looking forward to this just a little bit...

From Cousins - June 2009

Once we got there it didn't take Robert long to jump right in.

From Cousins - June 2009

Jack on the other hand wasn't too sure about all the water and needed a little encouragement from his brother.

From Cousins - June 2009

Adam walked through the sprinklers with Carter and they both ended up soaked but with big smiles.

From Cousins - June 2009

In the end Jack came around and enjoyed the water too.

We enjoyed a picnic in the shade after all of that splashing and running.

And then we snapped just a few pictures of the cousins before we all headed home for afternoon naps.

Jack got an early start on naptime on the way home...

It was a great weekend and we loved having Carter's cousins here for a visit. We are very excited that we get to see them again next week for some more water activity at the lake and then at the beach.