Twas another HUGE weekend (continued again)

OK, so we're several posts into this thing and I've only covered one day of a 4 day weekend!  I'll condense.  Mike Koops- my talented cousin Sheena's hubby is also talented.  He had an art show going on all weekend at the old school.  So we headed over there to check it out.  He had many of his pieces up.  This one is one of my favorites.  This is a drawing he had made of my grandma's sister- great Aunt Lavena and her husband- great uncle Cecil Bailey.  He was always making jokes- most of which my dad still tells today.  One of his jokes is that he called aunt Lavena the Ugly Man's wife- thus the title of this piece.

Mike, Lin, Josh and several other cousins are pretty big into super heros.  Josh did a lot better than I did at identifying them all.

He was creating while we toured.

We also went to the beach that day.  It was so gorgeous, we had a hard time leaving.  I got to swim some and kayak some- which makes me so incredibly happy.  I can't even describe how the water soothes and invigorates me.  I was so glad we'd gone too because I had assumed the lake was filthy with algae by now as it had been several weeks ago, but it was relatively clear- so I'm glad to know I shouldn't write it off for the month!

beaches with play structures are so smart!

We found a few monkeys hanging around.

Monday was the extra day to the weekend and so fun again!  We had brunch at the Koops' and all the cousin kids hung out and played and WOW- the adults got to just hang out and visit.

I never really got to experience this in Texas.  My kids were smaller then and my friends' kids were all as young as mine, so we were always with the kids and never got to really visit without being referees and activity initiator and waitress and cook, drink pourer and swing pusher...

But when we moved here I was met with #1- older cousin kids and #2- Sheena's childrearing philosophy of laissez-faire and it's good for them to work it out and it's good for us to have adult time. 

It was a bit of a shock for me at first, but I've come to love it.  Arwen- who for years was the "baby" has now honed her kid facilitating skills since this new crop of life has come along and she gets to be the coordinator.  Sometimes aunty Sheena does give some direction- like here are some baskets and why don't all you kids collect pine cones for the path "game"-- oh yeah, get some work out of them while you are at it and they don't even notice!  Some moms are so SMART!

It really was a SUPER weekend.  But now that all the hubbub is over, it's nice to have some quiet days too- some get your house back in order days, some pick the overgrown garden days, read a book, create with lego, breathe.