The Relatives Came

My sister and her family are visiting from Pittsburgh, and everyone is ecstatic about it.  Liz is a extrovert, who loves being around as many people as possible, so of course everyone loves being around her.  We had a big family dinner last week, and there was a big bocce tournament in my parents’ backyard afterwards.

My brother, Pat, is big on the bocce:

And isn’t my parents’ garden gorgeous?  I don’t have a garden; I have a yard, which is best for little kids to play in and get muddy.  So it’s nice to enjoy my mom’s flowers on our visits.

And the cousins!  Yay for Cousin Sarah!  She is just between Eleanor and William in age, which makes her the perfect playmate.  Cousin Abby, at age two, is still a little too small for most of the action, but she’ll catch up soon.

It was a really windy day on this afternoon, so I took the kids kite flying when bocce got boring.  My parents have a big dragon kite which is unfortunately very difficult to fly.  I kept crashing it into the ground after just a few minutes of airtime.  Eleanor and Sarah would rush across the field to “rescue” it, Sarah speaking to the kite the entire time as if it were alive.

“Don’t worry, boy,” she’d say, patting the dragon’s nose, “you’ll do better next time.”

Eleanor loved making dramatic arm gestures whenever she launched the kite into the air.  Abby was unfortunately scared of the dragon, and William comforted her whenever it took off.

Poor Jeffrey, though.  He’s a little too old to enjoy playing with so many little girls, and Uncle Alex was in a mood to be alone, so he was kind of the odd man out for the evening.  Rats!