Cousin Camp and Independence Day!

Each year the kids go to something very fun called COUSIN CAMP! This is something their dad's sister and brother-in-law host every year for their kids and all their nieces & nephews. The kids have to be at least 5 years old to attend, and they stay from Wednesday night until Saturday morning. This year the Saturday morning happened to be the 4th of July, which is our American Independence Day, so we combined it with our usual big family celebration (which Charmin attended with us last year). 

Here are all the Cousin Campers and Koko (on Tyson's shoulder on the right)! There are actually 11 cousins missing because they live too far away to attend or are too young (My husband is one of 10 kids- big family!) and as you can see, Teeny was there with me that day so she got in the picture too.

Here was the Friday and Saturday schedule- I came up on Friday to help out with craft time. We made junk journals! They also did a campfire on Wednesday night and went swimming on Thursday. They rehearsed songs and skits which they performed on Saturday morning. Koko came up with us too and ended up spending the night. 

On Saturday morning we met up with our cousin campers at Rivendell, my husband's parents' home. Here's Koko hanging out on the garden wall.

The kids performed their songs & skits and had awards and a talent show. Here's one of their songs from the show:

In this video Charlotte is on the left with her biggest cousin, Gavin, Tyson is in the middle and Audrey was in front with her cousin Emma, who was leading the song. (The last verse of this song said, "Give me a big milk! CHOCOLATE! Give me a little milk...skim..." LOL!) 

 It was a lot of fun! After we had lunch the kids played while we waited for the rest of the family to get there for dinner and fireworks.

Charlotte hung out with Koko by the pool. Tyson was doing water ballet...or something...

Crazy kiddos.

Later Koko went to watch everyone playing volleyball. Do you see him? I think he was the line guard.

Then he decided to get in the game. He has some mad spiking skills (with the help of Audrey, of course- obviously he's too short to reach the top of the net). 

Next, it was time for sack races!

The sacks were a little big for Koko, so he got to ride along with Charlotte.

Here is some strange teddy with prizes from the sack race...oh wait, is that Koko?

Then we roasted marshmallows and had s'mores. Teeny shared.

Koko snagged a good spot for fireworks on the porch. You can see some folks playing a crazy game involving frisbees and trash cans in the back field. 

When it got dark, everyone got glow necklaces- even Koko! Makes it easier to not lose anyone when it's so dark outside!

Fireworks time!

Teeny wasn't a fan. We brought noise-canceling headphones for her, but it was still too loud for her!

I have one more catch-up post that I meant to do last week, but the week ended up being kind of crazy so I didn't get to it! But I'll put it up soon. Hope you all are having a great time too!