Sleep over at the cousins

As many of you know, I went down to Andra and David's last week to babysit their kids so they could have a fun over night excursion alone. I am sure some of you are wondering how we all fared since it was just me and six kiddos. Robby was busy working on that all important dissertation that night. (Sometimes I think we need to make more room in our family for our big child, Dissertation. He is my fifth and most invisible child - Li'l Robby, Jenna, Olivia, Big Robby, and Dissertation. Did you know that Dissertation is almost 3 years old?! I must admit though, Disseration is an unruly sort of child, and to be honest, I will be glad when he leaves our lives for good. No, we won't have his adoption finalized. Sounds heartless doesn't it!)

Back to the story, yes me and six kids for 29 hours! First off, I was under strict orders by Andra to "spoil them!" Yippie! Spoiling other people's children is fun, but of course that meant spoiling my own in the process. Oh well, they know that they shouldn't expect this kind of treatment at home.

So, what did spoiling entail? Letting them make a big mess dumping out just about all of the toys in the playroom, playing restaurant and pretending to eat everything they served me (even Audry got in on the action and fed me random toys, Aunt Sharon says, "Yum! Yum!"), having pizza for dinner, getting as much ice cream as they wanted both for dessert the first night and after lunch the next day, playing out on the big playset till after dark, and watching 3 movies in less than 24 hours! I think they had fun. Even I had fun staying up a little late to watch a movie from Andra's collection - Sense and Sensibility (I had always wanted to see it and never had... Robby's not into chick flicks.)

So here are a few snapshots from our time together...

Jenna had a great time playing with Audry. I thought it was cute that they sat down in the corner together to read books while the boys horsed around.

Jamesy seemed very interested in little Olivia.


Here are my two restaurant operators. The food was delicious boys!

I think Olivia was fascinated watching all the goings on around her.

Vegging out...

in front of the tube.

In classic Jamesy style, he avoided eye contact with my camera everytime it was turned in his direction. That's okay James, I know you are super cute even without a picture!

I came home thinking, I could do six kids. It wasn't that overwhelming. And then I crashed on the couch. Boy did that feel good!

(Yes, I still want 10 kids. Will we get there? I don't know, but that's what I want.)

By the way, it was my pleasure, Andra!