Cousin relationships

My sister has 5 kids, 1 boy & 4 girls.  Whenever Conner needs "boy time", she sends him my way, where else can he get all the rough & tumble into his system, than at my testosterone filled house?!  Conner is the same age as C-Man, but he gets along with all 3 of my boys (well, him & D have their issues, but even that is getting better).  We have Conner this week, his dad dropped him off with us last Sat & someone will come get him this Sat (I think).  

These boys have spent their days shooting each other & just having a blast!  Our backyard is a full fledged war zone for their air soft "battles".  Seriously, they would be out there at 8am every morning if I let them.  (I make them wait until at least 9).  They come in only to play some shoot em up video game, then head back out to battle it out again.  A few times, they have gotten on their bikes, & they even played basketball for a few minutes.  Oh, the other thing they have been doing is hanging out in our "band room", playing the drums & guitar.  Oh, & who can forget the wonderful game "rug burn" that my boys have made up?!  

Yeah, I would say, Goldfish, mission accomplished, Conner has gotten TONS of "boy time" in this week.  Oh, I have to tell this little story about him though, I was laughing so hard (NOT at him, I actually felt sorry for him...) so Princess was dipping a spoon (fork?) into a cup & then "brushing" her hair.  Conner asked if she had been watching "Ariel".  Him & I then talked about the "dinglehopper" & how silly Princess was being.  My boys, (jaws on the floor at this point) asked Conner how in the world he knew what a "dinglehopper" was & why was he watching the Little Mermaid (I had to tell them that's who Ariel was).  Poor Conner, tried to figure out how to get out of that one!  I stepped in & reminded my boys that Conner is TOTALLY out numbered at his house & probably doesn't get much choice in what is on the TV with that many sisters!!!  Man, my poor little Princess, is this what she'll be going through a few years from now when I send her to Goldfish's for some "girl time"?!  She'll be able to go on & on about the "old time" rock stars Daddy likes, or the newest shoot em up video game, or even talk for hours about the Lakers & their stats for the season, but be completely clueless on who the newest Hannah Montana is, or who the Jonas Brothers are?!

All in all, it's been a great week.  We LOVE having our cousins spend time with us.  We may not have the coolest house, or the most $, or even the best home cooked (ok, or ANY of those) meals, but ya know, we do know how to have fun!  I love watching the relationships grow as the kids all get older.  I hope & pray that they always are close & that they cherish these fun memories.  

I have TONS of memories of spending time with my cousins growing up, I have lots of stories I could tell.  I am closer to some cousins & have more memories of them because I saw them more often, but I hold close to my heart, all of my cousins & am so glad we are not only family, but friends!