29 March 2012

cousin-a-palooza


EDIT: my post-of-the-month with Gifts of Serendipity!!
Greetings all,
One of the luckiest parts of my children's lives, is that they have 19 first cousins.  I have 5 cousins, all much older than me & all living in England.  My husband grew up with lots of local cousins, Italian style.  Our generation . . . we're breeders!!  This past weekend with my side of the family, includes the French brother-in-law & the Austrian sister-in-law, our mixed gene pool of off spring makes a collective 14 cousins.
  
On the first morning we arrived, my sister & brother set up an Easter egg hunt for the youngest 7 cousins, it was so cute, watching them race around. 
Then of course, the tractor rides & hooning around in the buggy. 
This set of cousins are spread all over NSW/ ACT, especially now the eldest 4 are at University, but get them together, it's one big party.  
 I love love love being an auntie, you can say things like "that boy is no good for you" to your nieces & they listen.  Completely different to being the mother/ the enemy.  Works both ways - i heard my eldest daughter talking to a fellow 'eldest' about how hard it is to be the first born.  I'm the youngest, so is my husband, we have no idea how hard it would be to break in parents. 
I can't believe how fast everyone is growing up - one niece looks like she'll be a military wife as her boyfriend is joining the Air Force (no one saw that coming, he's an electrician), another dumped her boyfriend (hurray, i told her we all have to date a bad boy loser to get it out of our system & then recognise the boys who are good for you). 
Love that high school boys will still jump on trampolines!! 
One thing my father said in his 80th birthday speech was that we are a 'close knit family unit' & yes, we sure are.  Either that or this is our family 'creepy uncle'.  Tee hee. 
Next time we get together??  I'll see everyone on a slow trip from Canberra to Brisbane for Christmas, but all together in one place, i should start planning my 40th, give them 3 years notice & no excuses.  Love Posie

11 comments:

TexWisGirl said...

what a load of fun!!! what great memories for all the kids!

Miriam said...

looks like you all had a great time, yay for cousins!!! just did a post about one of mine too

Jan Maree said...

How gorgeous - I can just imagine how much the handsome soldier itched to be with you all! Your kids are so lucky to have these memories - planning your 40th? Three years notice? Now I feel old - my 50 this year! Ugh!

Teresa said...

It looks like your Dad's 80th has been a wonderful family occasion! Cousin's make great friends - they kind of 'get you' more I think coming from similar backgrounds.

I also love being an aunt to older girls - I also give them my 'wordly' advice - I hope they listen and just don't think I sound ancient ;)

Felicity said...

I love seeing all of this love.

Am a bit envious though as there only two siblings in my family - yep, me + 1 and the total of my cousins = 6, four live in NSW and two in Canada. Obviously big family festivals like the one you celebrated never happened for me, so I do relish reading about it here.

Happy day Gorgeous,
x

Mum on the Run said...

That's just magic.
The kids will treasure these memories.
:-) xx

Sindy said...

I have a total of 17 cousins - not that impressive when you consider I have 8 aunts and uncles (by blood ie not including their husbands/wives) - we did have a gay one thrown in which does skew the statitistics however ;-) . Of those 17 I have met 14, but only grew up knowing 5 really as we all live in different countries. One of my closest friends now is one of those cousins, and her daughter is my god-daughter. This giant family get together looks like a blast!

Brenda @ 13 Acres said...

Gorgeous gorgeous gorgeous as usual!!! What happy well adjusted children and teenagers I see before me. And how proud you must be as mother and aunty!!! I love ir when my two get together with my nieces but they only have two cousins....I do wish there were more, but alas one sister and one brother remain single and therefore childless!!!

Liene said...

Love big families! I'm an eldest, so I enjoyed the dozens of younger cousins. Now wishing they would hurry up and have kids so that my sons have that same experience. Stopping by from POTM, Femme au Foyer

Robyn said...

so lucky to have such a big family-i think that is very special

Maxabella said...

You are all very luck indeed, Posie. Just think of all the support your children will always have. Lovely! x