More cousins to play with!

We'd known they were coming for a few months and sort of patiently counted down the days.  Finally Bennett, Tiffany, Sam, and Elise were in town!  They made 2 visits to our house and resourceful Elizabeth is travelling to Morehead today to fit in one more during her overnight at Grandma's. 

We'd seen them earlier this year, but the children really had grown physically and developmentally during the past few months.  Sam is so happy all the time (can he teach me how to be that way?) and Elise is quite the athlete.  Everyone got along with everyone else; no troubles (although Michael wanted me to include that Elise did hurt her toe on the concrete and that made us all sad).  Sam and Michael had a lot of strategizing going on with the Nerf blasters (I refuse to write the word 'gun'); there was tag with rules that were made up as they went (see video

below); Elise loved building the puzzles of the Oh Rats! game, which was Elizabeth's favorite game when she was young (yes, that is the only reason we still have a game for 3 year olds); and we got to see Elise's amazing smile over and over again as she disappeared into the closet then came back out, shouting "Hello!".  Elise had fun with a doll house while Sam and Michael played with Michael's friend Riley - a little bit of wii, a little bit of DS, a lot more of the Nerf blasters.  And everyone played with my favorite toy - Fisher-Price!!  Both kids warmed up to Zoe by the end and liked petting her. 

We feel so lucky to have seen the whole family twice this year.  I love talking with Tiffany about all kinds of topics, and all of our fingers are crossed for seeing them at Christmas, too!