60 Years of Cousins

My cousins will be 60 on Monday. Apparently, I freaked out my aunt with this revelation. (It wasn't my fault! I wrote it on something she wouldn't have read, one of the cousins repeated it in an e-mail she did read, and voila, she feels old. Good thing I didn't mention the 125+ years it would be for all the girls, right?)

Anyway, the birthday BBQ was today at 3. Lee had to work from 10-5, so he was joining us afterward. I put the girls down for naps at 11:45. I was just about to give up on Taylar, when she fell asleep at 2:10. Hmmm... It's at least 20-25 minutes to get there. Less, if you're not herding toddlers to the parking lot. But I was. With only Alexa for backup.

I decided to let her nap a while and just be late. Not normally something I am fond of, but it's gotten me out of a lot of trips to Dallas, so who am I to knock it? The nap happens when the nap happens.

Jasmyne woke up a few minutes before Taylar. As soon as I tore myself away from blog-reading heard her, and was up and moving around, she pounced. First thing she did was growl at her sister. She's been conditioned to do this in the mornings. Taylar lounges in bed as long as she can. Jasmne does various things to wake her, but the growl is my favorite. Taylar was in some serious REM sleep, so nothing was waking her up right then. I picked out the girls' dresses and got my clothes on.

Before long, Taylar succumbed to Jasmyne's efforts. I asked her did she want to go to the party. That was all I had to say, she popped up and was ready to put her dress on. Did someone say poorty? I don't know where she got this accent from. She also uses it for our 'new coor' - the minivan. I wet and re-fixed the girls' hair, moussed mine and we were good to go.

Alexa had made a no-bake cheesecake during naptime. We were pretty set. We took the leftover colored mini-marshmallows and the pack of smoked sausage from Sam's for the grill. (Ha! And none of it came back home!)

The babies were out the door like a shot once I opened it. Except I forgot one minor thing. My purse. All I really needed was the keys and cameras, but it was faster to grab the whole thing. (I swear, it's about 10# or more!)

We were walking up the sidewalk when my phone rang. It wasn't Lee's ringtone, so I knew it was someone from the party wanting to know where we were. Yup, one of the twins. "So, we were just wondering how long you guys would be?" Um, didn't I tell you? We're not coming." "Oh, ok." Lighten up, will ya? I was just e-mailing you about it yesterday. "We're getting in the van now." "So, what time do you think you'll get here?" "I actually have no idea what time it is, so however long it takes you to get there from your house." Totally forgetting she just moved last week.

The rest of the conversation was kinda a blur. Jasmyne turned left instead of right at the top of the stairs and was playing prisoner with the guard rail. (Wish I had a picture - she had a bar in each hand and was rocking herself back and forth, yelling all the while.) I already had the million-pound-purse, the diaper bag to end all diaper bags and the booster seat in my hands. Now I had to grab her up, because she was really proud of her game. Plus, I really wasn't too sure about the sturdiness of the guardrail.

We got there, no incident. Carried all our miscellaneous crap in and joined the party. For the record, we were not the last ones there. The last blood-relations, but not the last guests.

Jasmyne was doing her best to disappear into my neck. I was wearing a tank top, but some lunacy inspired me to wear my hair down today. I never, ever wear it down. It's too freakin' hot! It was only 70 degrees out and overcast when we got there, but it had rained earlier, and was humid.

Anyway, there I was, hanging out at this party, dripping with sweat. (Some kind of punch line goes here, I just can't see it yet.) Everyone desperately wants to hold Jasmyne. She's not having any of it. I gave my aunt a mini-marshmallow to bribe her with, but it wasn't enough. Maybe I shouldn't have grabbed yellow, but I really wasn't looking.

We heard some mumblings about the fire being out of control on the grill. The burgers looked well done, come to think of it. My uncle later said he almost set the whole neighborhood on fire. Something about the whole grill being engulfed in flames. He does tend to over-exaggerate, though.

We ate at the 'big circle'. Jasmyne dropped raspberries and a strawberry on the carpet. Ugh! Taylar didn't want much besides chips, but I coerced her into eating some healthy options. she changed her mind and ate other things. Jasmyne gobbled up a bunch of fruit and sausage. And somehow I managed to keep them away from dessert. How'd I manage that? I mean, good planning, Mom!

Jasmyne finally let people hold her.

Partly because I told her I wasn't picking her back up. Taylar decided she was a butterfly and ran around flapping her arms. Well, except for the 4 times she hit her head over the course of the afternoon. Everyone kept messing with Alexa for having "I Love Boys in Skinny Jeans" written in marker on her pants leg. There are so many things wrong with that...

We watched an episode of Backyardigans on the portable DVD player I'd packed. Poor anyone who was too close to us. Lee finally called at 5:45 that he'd just left work. Really, really not bad for him. He came out and only had to call once to ask if he had the right street.

I think we ended up leaving around 7. Lee stopped off for gas, but I didn't know where he went until 2 hours later, when I checked my phone. I'd come straight in with the girls and all the stuff, turned on a movie for them and started in on the dishes everyone had left me through the day. Lee put the greasy pans in the water in the sink with everything else, so the first thing I did was dump the water.

Lee really enjoyed Bolt. Well, the first half. Then he got hungry and made a can of soup. The babies needed a snack. Taylar wanted the jalapeno pretzels I was eating, so I let her have some. Jasmyne wanted some too. I must love her more, because I didn't give her any. It wasn't but a minute of two before someone needed a "cup with milk in it". Hmmm...

The movie ended, we put the kids to bed and Lee went to go pick someone up from work and take them across town. Good for me, because I got to catch up one of my Google Readers and write this horribly long, boring blog. Yaay, the end.