This week, I'm in Utah...specifically, Orem, Utah. I'm here with my family, enjoying a little of the July 4th holiday. Today, however, was very special. All of G-Man's cousins (from my wife's side of the family) are in town. He decided he wanted to have a Cousins Party. The kids wanted to stay up "late" and have a series of fun activities that they could do together. I was told that if the party didn't last until 9pm, then it wasn't a "real" party ; )
We set up a series of balloons in the kitchen. Inside each, was a piece of paper with an activity listed. The kids would get to pop a balloon every twenty minutes...making the party last a little longer. We had about twelve activities in all.
One of the first activities was blowing bubbles. This was something that all the kids could participate in, as G-Mans cousins covered a wide range of ages - from 2 to 7.
Then came one of my favorite activities - a Silly String Fight. Each of the kids had a can of Silly String and they could shoot each other....or me. I didn't have any fun at all...obviously ; )
Then...we decided that with the temperatures in the high 90s, that it was time to get wet. The next activity was Water Balloon Piñatas.
Each of the kids could take a turn hitting a water balloon, hopefully getting the other kids wet in the process. Next time, we're going to use bigger balloons, as these were pretty tough to break with a plastic bat ; ) I switched to a yard stick...it's all I could find:
As usual, this event turned into a water fight. We started by throwing some of the large water balloons at the kids. We had them lined up for a photo, then I threw a water balloon right in front of them (see the purple blur in the middle). They scattered pretty well:
Grandpa then grabbed the hose, escalating the entire thing. The fight was pretty one-sided for a while, until Grammy stepped in (see the video):
No Cousin Party would be complete without a Grandpa Toad Tickle Fight. After drying off, the cousins tried to work together to take him down...I think my wife tried to help them a little...
The kids made their own pizzas...and even created their own puppet show for us to watch:
We were still on a roll. The next activity was making S'Mores in Grammy and Grandpa's backyard. They had a gas firepit that was perfect for roasting marshmallows:
Each of these kids love to dance...so naturally, one of the events was a dance party. We cranked up the tunes in one of the cars, and started dancing on the lawn:
Even though it wasn't dark, one of the events was all about lighting fireworks. As the responsible adult, it fell on me to light the fireworks (stop laughing). In Utah, you can buy fireworks anywhere. We picked up a small set, so the kids could safely enjoy them. Here's the aftermath:
The last event of the party was a swim in the hot tub. Trying to get them to stand still for a picture was almost impossible, so this blurry one is the best I could get ; )
After watching a movie, it was pretty late...but they all got to sleep together in the TV room. They did pretty well, as I think we tired them out ; )
We're hoping to build more memories for G-Man with his cousins. My wife and I have such fond memories of growing up with our cousins on special occasions and want our kids to enjoy the same.
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