It's Magic

Growing up I was surrounded by cousins.  On my mom's side , there are 14 of us.  On my dad's side there are 7. 

When we were little we got together for birthdays and picnics and vacations.  As we got older it was graduations, weddings and holidays.

I'd like to think that I have a special memory with each and every one of my cousins. 

We used to go to Maine every summer with my dad's side of the family.  We all went to Sebago Lake and I have so many great memories of jumping on a giant tube called "The Fat Fanny Tube" and walking of to the general store and getting candy.  Perfect childhood memories, I am so grateful to my parents and my aunts and uncles for giving us those memories.

On my mom's side , our ages have a range of about 30 years, so I have more individual memories with my cousins.  There were babysitting adventures, trips halfway across the country, countless older cousins vs. little cousins battles, and we all have the memories of being told to put our coats on because it was time to go and sweating at the door while our parents got involved in conversation.

My cousin J has a daughter that is only a few months younger than my daughter.  They live in CT, about an hour away from us, so we don't get to see them that often.  The girls have always been drawn to each other, but now that they're older, they are inseparable when they see each other.

It usually happens that they see each other twice a year.  My family holds an annual golf tournament in November. (We're Canadian, Canucks, we play in the cold).  On that day my daughter (K) and my cousins daughter (M) spend the day with The Grandmas (my mom and M's grandma are sisters).  They always have a wonderful time and meet up with us after for pizza. 

Then a few months later, we get together for our Christmas party and the girls are off on the corner, talking, sharing secrets and sneaking treats for the entire day.

After this last year's Christmas party, it was decided by K and M that seeing each other twice a year was unacceptable.  We all agreed.

We scheduled a sleepover.  K went to M's house for a weekend in March.  K's mom described the girls together as "magic". 

Over Spring Vacation, M came up to our house for a sleepover.  It was truly magical.  These girls have such an amazing love for each other.  We had such a great visit.  The girls had very similar dresses for Easter, so I took them to Target and had their pictures taken.  They were so adorable, I can't wait to pick up the portraits on Friday.  After that we had lunch at Friendly's (while we still can) and then spent the afternoon at K's school's playground which was completely empty.  They were so thrilled to have the place to themselves.

I'm so happy to see the cousin love continue with the next generation and I hope K and M continue to have this special relationship as the years go on.  It really is magic.

 The morning after the sleep-over, they actually got a great amount of sleep, but still needed to warm-up with some cartoons before starting the day.

 "Coffee" for breakfast, they thought juice in the coffee mugs was hilarious!

 Playing Barbie Dream House, love the look on M's face...such love!

 Well deserved ice cream after all their hard work at the photo shoot.

This is apparently how fashion models walk.

 More modeling.

 K on the monkey bars, she has been trying to conquer these for years, she now flies across them, love her determination.

Pretty, pretty M, cheering K on.

M couldn't believe how steep this slide was.  They bravely went down together.