Cousin Camp #6 2015

It's a Cousin Camp Miracle! All 15 looking at the camera!
 Ages 10 months to nine years! 

This was the sixth year we have had Cousin Camp! Hard to believe we started six years ago with only a handful and now we have 15! The kids all have such a great time and though it is exhausting and hot, camp is such a fun thing to do! We spend all our time outside when we are at home and we also spend a day at our local Children's Museum! We eat lots of junk food and skip naps and play in water and ride golf carts and just enjoy spending time together! Long after Poppy and I are gone, we want them to all remember the importance of family. Some of their best memories will be of their cousins!

Poppy is incredible! He works tirelessly for days to make Cousin Camp happen! There is NO WAY i could do it without him. The kids always enjoy the slow golf cart rides through the neighborhood! It takes three carts to hold all of us!

Again this year the cookies are from Sweet Stuff by Meredith! You can find her on Facebook. She is local to me but she DOES ship and her cookies taste as good as they look!!!

I ordered the shirts from Blanks Boutique! A friend did the appliqués!

I may invest in a new sign next year! I never dreamed when I scribbled this on an old chalkboard back in 2010 that we would still be doing CC every year!

I won't bore you with the other 100 pictures we took! But, if you have any questions about CC, please leave a comment with your email address and i will try my best to answer your questions!

Until next year……..it's a WRAP!

Cousin Camp 2014!!

Just finished up with Cousin Camp 2014! We all agree it was one of our best ones yet!! There were 14 cousins....The oldest one was EIGHT! (Sure did miss our teen cousins who are working at a summer camp!!) This will be picture overload that may not interest anyone except my family. But I like to document it here every year. (Past years are on my sidebar under cousin camp.)

Each year we try to have something *new* for Cousin Camp. This year we had two new things. One was the Extreme Coaster by Step2. The kids loved this and it's for ages three to eight. Our kids as young as 15 months loved it too!!

The other *new* thing for CC was a playhouse/workshop for the boys. Poppy used an existing building we have in our back yard. He put a wall down the middle and turned half of it into the *boy house.* It is a work in progress and is not complete but the boys (and girls) loved playing in it!! Here are a few pictures before landscaping and completion! The door and the windows are real road signs!! How cool is that??!! Poppy and J (son) worked so hard to make this happen! They still have a roof to complete, some stairs and lots of inside work. I will post again when it is complete. (Hopefully soon!)

The kids loved playing in the new house with the real wood! The beginning of a *busy board* is on the wall too! Poppy has a long way to go but doesn't it look great?

Our shirts this year were color coded by families! The niece in the green shirt has two older sisters that we missed so much! They are working at a camp this summer!! And little W, in the yellow shirt, has a sibling on the way in late summer!

There are 14 children here....hard to see the two week old on the top row! Our goal was to take the picture at 8:30 am. We only missed it by a few minutes!

Look at the adorable cookies I had made to look like each child! They are much cuter when the names aren't blurred out! But...............

We had such a great time this year! The children all got along so good! Pretty amazing to have that many children without an argument! May never happen again! :) The moms come to Cousin Camp too. Poppy and I couldn't do it without them. We might be able to in a few years when the children are older but there are too many little ones for that now! Thanks so much to you moms and to my mom for all your help. Thank you for allowing Poppy and I the privilege of loving them and making memories with them.I hope they will grow up knowing how important family is and I know they will grow up knowing *your cousins are some of your very first friends!*

And, I can't close without saying, guess where Poppy and Nonny spent the night during Cousin Camp? We gave away our bedrooms and every ounce of floor space, so, we snuck away at 8:00 pm and returned at 6:30 am.

Until next year sweet cousin friends....always know you are so very loved...by us but most importantly by Jesus! And, you ALWAYS have family to come home to!  

Love, Nonny and Poppy Miss Angelove/Uncle Mike

Cousin Camp Recap!

I have had several people email me and ask for the details of Cousin Camp.

So, I thought I would put the details in one post.

I always begin with an email sometime around January with the dates I have chosen. We tweak those dates until we come up with two days that suit every family. We have done it now for four years and so far it has worked....probably because we pin the date down early. And also because most of the cousins are still young enough that their schedules are their mom's schedules too! The moms always think I am a little crazy and over the top when they get that email so early, but that's what it takes to make it work.

The next thing I do is usually sometime in March (though this year I was behind.) That is when I order the tee shirts. Last year one of the babies was due in June....just a few weeks before camp so the name on the shirt was *Baby D**** (his last name.) 

This was the shirt I chose for this year. The blue birds represent the boys and the pink...the girls.

I always rent a bouncy house/slide from a local company. I try to get this reserved about six weeks before camp. I usually do a follow up call the week before to make sure we are all on the same page. We have various ones every year. This is a picture of the cow we had a couple of years ago.

For the last couple of years, we have taken a golf cart ride through our neighborhood. We live in a neighborhood that we feel like we can do that safely in. We go so slow that the moms walk behind us for safety. We hold tight to the little ones and don't let them sit alone since they don't have helmets on. The kids (young and old seem to like this) and it's fun for Nonny and Poppy too. It goes without saying there is NO way I could do this without Poppy. He works for weeks to get everything ready!

We spend most of our time the first day in the back yard at our house. We blow up four or more baby pools and we have a play house, playset with swings  and various baby swings.  

We also have riding toys/bikes they can ride on on the driveway. 


The second day is spent at the pool. This is always a big feat to get all the kids in the bathing suits and get them all to the pool. It's worth it in the long run though and so far we have continued doing it. We eat lunch at the pool too and always try to get a group shot before we leave.

(missing a mom and her twins....too hot to be outside that long!)


I'll be honest....the hardest part is the food. Most of my family members eat very healthy. They try to keep their children away from fast food and dyes. We don't eat completely healthy at Cousin Camp and that's ok, but it is hard to serve prepared, quick foods of any kind to that many children. Lunch the first day is a Chick-Fil-A Nugget tray, fresh fruit, chips and salsa. Dinner is pizza. We have various snacks throughout the afternoon and evening. Breakfast is pastries and fresh fruit, yogurt, milk and orange juice. For lunch each mom orders for their kids off the menu at the pool. We make it all work and they are all gracious and understand the dynamics of feeding twelve little ones under seven!

We had a backup plan this year in case of rain....The Children's Museum. We didn't have rain, sans a thunderstorm after dinner, so we didn't have to use our backup plan!

The sleeping arrangements are interesting...to say the least. That's a lot of cribs and Pack N Plays. Again, we make it work but I think next year some of the four, five, six and seven year olds may all sleep together in the playroom instead of with their moms. They will love that!

I'm sure I have left some things out. If you have any questions, please feel free to ask here in comments or email me.

Already looking forward to Cousin Camp 2014. We will have at least one more baby to add to the group.....that baby's gender will be announced next week!


A shout out to my mom and dad who were so much help!!!

And to my baby sister and her big girls for all their help!

It really does take a village to have a Cousin Camp!

Love you family.

Cousin Camp 2013...............

...........was WONDERFUL!

The trash has been taken out.

The baby pools are empty......

......the refrigerator is too.

The juice boxes are gone

And the beach towels are folded.

It sure is quiet here

And I miss them.

I miss the chaos and the spills.

The crying and the happy sounds.

Most of all,

I miss those cousins and their mommies.

Look what they left me.....

Love these cousins!

June Catch Up

WOW!

And I thought May was busy!

The first weekend in June was Wells' (nephew) 1st birthday!

His mom had worked for months on his party!

THE VERY HUNGRY CATERPILLAR!

The next weekend my niece, KiKi, graduated from high school!

She graduated salutatorian, so she had to make a speech.

Kiki was a Fabulous speaker!!!

We had a party the night before to celebrate her!

So proud of this girl!

That same weekend hubs did his 200 mile bike ride.....

....and the girls had their dance recital!

The next weekend was Father's Day.

We spent the day at my brother's house.

He lives on the lake and it was a gorgeous day!

In between all those weekends I tried to work a few days...

.......and I kept all the kiddos at different times!

Next week is Cousin Camp!!!

Then, Nonny might need a VACA!



Stay tuned...............

Cousin Camp 2012

Cousin Camp 2012 came and went.

I think it gets better every year.

This post of pictures should sum it up.

ENJOY!...We did!

 (A friend, Melissa, came to help out with the kiddos at the pool! She was a HUGE help!)

We packed a LOT into our two days of Cousin Camp!

I LOVE the memories these cousins are making...and their mommies too!

Honestly, Poppy and I look so forward to this every year. There is NO WAY I could ever do this without him. He works for WEEKS getting ready and every year tries to come up with something new. This year, he borrowed an RV for the kids over two to sleep in (with Nonny) and a golf cart pulling a wagon to ride to the ball field on our street for snow cones.

Thank you Poppy.

Thank you cousins.

Thank you mommies.

We can't wait 'till next year!

I'll leave you with one last picture.

This is how I captured the kiddos when they were saying prayers before bed in the RV.

Amen.