Second cousins equal twice the fun

Molly is what I would describe as calendar-obsessed. Perhaps she's learning from my weather obsession. Who knows? Anyway, the following is an example of an all too common conversation in our house as of late:

• Molly: What are we doing after night-night?
• Me: Preschool
• Molly: And after another night-night?
• Me: Dance class
• Molly: And after another night-night?
• Me: Grocery shopping
• Molly: And after another night-night?
• Me: Going to Gigi and Papa's house

As you can see, this can go on for a really long time. A really, really long time. A really, really, really, really long time. We've gone for more than a month forward in time before. She doesn't seem to ever get bored of this line of questioning. The one thing that can terminate it has been reaching Easter. That has been the great end game. Molly has been so excited for Easter because her cousin (well, technically second cousin - her mom, Laura, is my cousin) Penelope was coming to visit. And, this weekend, the pinnacle finally arrived. Cousin Penelope had hit the town!

Penny

The weekend consisted of a lot of playing, a lot of giggling, a lot of squealing, and a lot of sleeping. Wait, nope, no sleeping. Not sure why people insist on calling them sleepovers. There is not a whole lot of sleep occurring. Also, not sure why we thought putting the two of them in one room together would lead to any amount of sleeping. It goes back to having a small house. We ran out of rooms, and that seemed like the best possible solution. Well, they sure had fun, anyway.

Molly and Penny displaying their treasure from the neighborhood Easter egg hunt.

How hilarious is that picture? Oh, Charlotte.

On the hunt!

When Laura and I were little, we (along with Laura's sister, Jennifer) were known as the giggly girls, because every time we were together, it was constant giggling. I have a feeling it will be the same way with these three girls.

Giggly Girls generation 2.

We decided to just drag along the Strands to everywhere this weekend. I'm pretty sure it was not a relaxing vacation for them. Especially considering they got no fancy home-cooked meals from us. For all of that, I apologize. It did not help that the weather was completely uncooperative. I distinctly remember putting in my request months ago for beautiful, sunny weather for Easter weekend. It appears my request was denied.

First up, I had the, I don't want to say genius, but really it was, the genius idea to have the dads take the girls to make birdhouses at Lowe's. They have these free work-with-your-hands classes. I'm not really sure what it entailed because the genius part of the idea was that Laura and I would 'have' to stay home while Charlotte took her morning nap. Darnit. We were forced to sit and talk for a couple hours. It was horrible.

Molly building her birdhouse with Cory.

Chris building the birdhouse with Penny's 'help.'

The girls and their beautiful creations.

Next, we took them with us to Charlotte's boyfriend, Kiran's first birthday party. When Laura came down for my 30th birthday, she met Kiran's mom, Tara. Then, Laura gets to come to Kiran's birthday party. Now, they're Facebook friends. I'm like the birthday party friend-maker. I love it.

Me with the happy birthday boy and his gf, Charlotte.

Penny was a farmer at the baby farm animal themed event.

I have to show this off. I made the invite for Kiran's party. Then, Tara took the invite to HyVee for inspiration on the cake. They made it to match almost identically. It was amazing! The invite is sitting right next to the cake on the left.

We went to church on Easter morning, then went to my parents' house for dinner that night. Charlotte had been suffering from a cold earlier in the week and had generously shared it with Molly. I guess she has been paying attention to all that "sharing" talk going on around her. And, here I thought she had just been ignoring me. Clearly, she inherited my genius gene. I digress. Molly was feeling under the weather and proceeded to fall asleep during church. She fell asleep in Cory's lap in the most energetic, exciting service of the year. Oh sweet girl. At least she got a balloon after it was over.

Easter morning after checking out what the Easter Bunny had left. Yes, they had matching jammies. Though, it was discovered that our Easter Bunny had forgotten any candy for their baskets. Good thing they aren't old enough to have expected it.

Easter morning after church. How precious are those girls?

Dyeing Easter Eggs at Gigi's house.

Wahoo!!!

Ever since the Strands have been coming down for Easter (ok, for a whopping 3 years) we've taken a picture of all the girls together, including me and Laura. It's incredibly difficult to get everyone to even look at the camera, much less look good. This is the best we got this year.

Not too bad.

And, here is the Lafferty clan:

We had a great time with everyone this weekend. Though, the lack of sleep did eventually get to the girls. By the end, Penelope was throwing fits and Molly said that she was done sharing her toys with Penelope. Not nice Molly. I feel bad for the Strands who, after the visit, had to drive seven hours back to Minnesota. Ugh. Can you imagine those people who had to cross the country in covered wagons? Not just hours traveling, but weeks and months. Another reason I am glad I was born into this time. I couldn't have made it back then.

Cousins generation 1.

The only disappointment from the whole weekend came the minute the Strands pulled out of the driveway. Molly turned to me and said, "Mommy, what are we doing after night-night?" It started again.