When cousins come to stay (or just play for that matter), my food supplies deplete significantly, our home becomes untidy (insert trashed), and my ears ring with all of the extra noise and madness! We often joke in my family that when we have any of the nieces or nephews over collectively, It’s like a swarm of locusts have invaded our houses!
When cousins come to stay, the kids turn extra nutty and wild, and talk super loud and fast. When bedtime rolls around it’s like an invite to party for them all! And when cousins come to stay, they chat all night, and all they want to do is all be squished into one bed or den they previously made for the occasion.
When cousins come to stay, we get extra treats, we watch films and we have lovely walks. They play outside for hours, play lego and invent games and scenarios!
And when cousins come to stay I rarely see much of anyone because they are so engrossed in their games and clubs, and in their play and laughter, that they think it is completely the best thing ever and mum is only needed for food and snacks (Hello Locusts)! My Kids love each of their 14 cousins, they are their little playmates and these are the ordinary moments of when they get together with any of them.
This weekend, Ethan and Megan had 3 of their cousins come to stay; 2 on Friday til Sunday as my sister and her husband enjoyed some kid free time celebrating their 10th Wedding Anniversary, and then one tonight whilst my sister works a night shift at the hospital. And whilst it is all very chaotic, later than we would like nights, and food depleting by the second, we love that they have such a great bunch of cousins on each side and can spend time with their special friends. We love to see the growing bonds, the friendships, the understanding simply because they come from the same nutty family and we love time to get to know our nieces and nephews and have funny chats, and build memories.
Yesterday we took the kids and their 2 cousins to Burton Agnes Hall here in East Yorkshire, and let them run wild in the grounds for a couple of hours. It was a lot of fun in a beautiful place, and despite the madness of the weekend, we are all grateful for the extra fun and general ordinary moments we get to have when cousins come to stay with us.
It’s so special to have close cousin bonds because the difference between having friends to stay is that the parents of all the kids love all the others too! My boys only have 5 cousins and only 3 live in the UK. Perhaps there’ll be more opportunities for hanging out together when they’re older as they’re still a bit small for sleepovers but I hope the distance between us all geographically doesn’t interfere with developing a close relationship. I love how you didn’t see much of them all because they were all having such a fab time together
It sounds like when cousins come to stay you just have the best time together. They all look so close and comfortable with each other x