A Cousin's Weekend

I have three sisters....together, we have 12 children. I thought it would be fun to share a weekend that we had over the Easter holiday this spring. 

I am so proud to say that all 12 cousins are extremely close knit, almost like brothers and sisters. We have made it a point to always stay connected, especially now that they are growing up, going off to college, and for one of the cousins that means JOINING the AIR FORCE. That nephew of mine has spent the last 2 years stationed in Japan. And came home for a month before moving to Italy where he is now stationed.

We all gathered at the airport, awaiting his arrival. And then here is the first glimpse of him....still gets me teary-eyed everytime I see this {blurry} picture. The next several that I took were completely blurry, maybe because I was jumping up and down and laughing yelling crying!?

While he was back for his visit, and because it had been 2 years since we had ALL been together, I planned a COUSIN'S WEEKEND. A very large slumber-party at our house! 

My sisters and I, along with our Mama, planned the weekend out: 
where everyone would sleep, the menu, the photoshoots, the games...

And we had only ONE RULE:

{NO CELL-PHONES or other techy devices}

We were to stay plugged- in to each other....

{My sisters and I}

{My sister and her family reunited!}

Mornings at my house were my favorite, I have a ton of (embarrassing, for our eyes only) photos of coffee time in our jammies, but here is one on Easter morning after all 12 cousins hunted and found their baskets from the Bunny.

{the Girls}

{the Boys}

Airsoft gun wars are a favorite pasttime when these 9 are together, so they all camo-ed up and spent hours around our farm and woods. 

 You are NEVER too old to enjoy slumber parties, 4-wheelin, playing games....
 

 This was truly my favorite. weekend. ever.

Easter morning at church with Grandma, and these 12 can never be serious for long.

 My sister, Kelley, was in charge of games for the weekend. She is brilliant with coming up with "Minute to Win It" type games (with prizes)!

Then it wouldn't be Easter without a good ol fashioned Egg Hunt...well, with a twist ;) Since they are getting too old for the real deal, we made a game of it.
The adults (while the "kids" were inside) spelled out words on the lawn.

We told them they needed to correctly write down what each word said, then when they thought they had it....we told them that they needed to correctly tell us how many eggs were used in each word also. 

We didn't even count ourselves, we just laughed watching them so seriously counting...we told them when they had it wrong and had to go back and recount. Seriously....funniest thing, watching them.....

Then there was the infamous "Golden Egg". Which had a very large amount of money in it. The cousins had to find it somewhere in the front yard. This is where it got REALLY competitive :)

I look back over these pictures all the time...someday these 12 will get married, and bring their own families. (which will also be fun) But this one weekend was like a once in a lifetime event that we will all cherish...just them, one last time, UNPLUGGED!