July 1, 2013

• Celebrating Cousins

  The planning started a year ago when we talked about the date, but the real work all happened in June.  It was our turn to host the annual Shaffer Cousins' Birthday Celebration.  It comes our way once every five years and we wanted it to be a special day for everyone.  Several months ago, we settled on a carnival theme and the boys and I brainstormed about games that we could set up in our yard for the children to play.  We settled on eight games that involved tossing, shooting, choosing and aiming.  The prizes for each game?  Candy or beef jerky.

  

  By the time the children had played all the games as many times as they desired, they had a bag full of candy and the parents had collected the bags and said, "no more." 

  

  I think they all decided that the miniature golf was the hardest game to play, but it was one of the cheapest to put together and then I found a golf club for 99 cents at Goodwill.

   

  In keeping with our carnival theme, we had a cotton candy machine that Dean kept going during the game time.  Justin had told me a week ago that all the cousins were going to go home in a sugar coma.

   

  Each child gets several small gifts and they were all eager to see what they got.  I think JJ's favorite was the flashlight.  At least it was in bed with him last night.

    

  Supper wasn't really a carnival supper, but we all enjoyed our Mexican salad.  I did discover that I had forgotten to put out the guacamole, but it just turned into a bedtime snack for those who still happened to be hungry. 

   

  Dessert brought us back to our theme and we had funnel cake sundaes.  While some were satisfied to eat their funnel cake sprinkled with powdered sugar, many added ice cream and sauces.  We fried cakes until we ran out of plates and the kids kept coming back for more.  We had cut all the cakes in half the first time and I heard one the young cousins tell his dad that he wanted more because he had only had two halves and one whole.

    

  One of Dean's sisters and her family stayed overnight and we ended our day with some home fireworks.  Even though we were all bone-tired, it took six children longer to settle down then three.

  We were blessed to have 31 people here for the day.  We were blessed to have a rain-free day. (It poured on Sunday.)  We are blessed to have a family that values family time and who commits to getting together several times a year as an extended family.  And we were blessed that no one went home in a sugar-induced coma.

   

  • 7:13 am
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