Here come the cousins!

They came, they played, they went home exhausted! There hasn't been much crafting going on around here. This is why!
My adorable nephews came for a visit over the weekend, much to the delight of Romily, who adores them, and Tristan, who thrives on the excitement of so many kids to play with. My brother and my sister-in-law drove up from Melbourne on Friday and did it in reverse yesterday. A long way to come for the weekend, but three days was more than enough for my over-excited four-year-old!

They had so much fun, but not quite enough sleep. Rom slept in her swap on her bedroom floor while the twins top and tailed in her bed. They had the funniest conversations when they should have been sleeping. Darcy and Cody are four weeks younger than Romily, and it's quite funny to watch her try to boss them around (she gets that from me) and them just ignore her! Sounds like typical female-male relations to me!
The older two, Zach and Sam, were so good with all the little ones. Rom and Sam have a special relationship and they are just adorable together. It was really great seeing Jacinta and Jim with their tribe - we don't get a lot of chat time when we visit them in Melbourne, as we're usually too busy making sure the kids don't get into too much trouble to talk properly. This time we were able to have a good chinwag after the kids were in bed.
With five of the six cousins celebrating birthdays within a month of each other, we had another cake to celebrate. We sang happy birthday to 'everybody' and all of the kids helped blow out the candles (except Tristan who was asleep in his cot already!).We headed out to some of Romily's favourite places in Canberra, including Questacon (a science and maths discovery place for kids) and Cockington Green (Miniature villages and a miniature steam train). The kids had a blast at both places, although they really wore themselves out!Jacinta and I did do a little bit of crafting - Zach and Sam are dressing up as 'Where's Wally' for book week in September. We were raw-edge appliqueing red felt stripes onto white skivvies. They will look adorable in matching red and white striped beanies being knitted by their 'other' grandmother (i.e. not my mum but Jacinta's mum). Also, I finished another two drawstring bags the night before the cousins arrived. One for Darcy and one for Cody, stuffed with a cute t-shirt and shorts outfit each (matching, but different colours) and a cute first reader book for each of them.Romily was bereft upon the cousins' departure and spent a good hour sobbing and wailing. Every time I looked at her she burst into tears again! She loves her cousins and I wish we could live closer so that they could see more of each other.

++++++++++++

Things will be a little quiet around here over the next few weeks. I have a paper due on Sunday and then we're off to Sydney for the week for a little bit of a family holiday. I'm going to take some handwork with me, but depending on how exhausted I am, may not get much done! Looking forward to some more crafting soon.