Visit from Marcy, Jada and Jennesa

For a weekend in mid-March my cousin, Marcy, and her daughters, Jada and Jennesa, came up from North Carolina to visit.  They came up on Saturday morning and planned on leaving early Monday morning.  Mother Nature had other plans for them, though...

That Saturday morning Ben and I ran a St. Patrick's Day 5k while Dee took the girls to their last gymnastics class.  We got home, showered and waited for everyone else to get to the house.  Once everyone was there we all went out to lunch together.  It was a beautiful day so we walked around Brambleton Town Center for a bit after we ate.  And Dee took this great picture of Ben, Marcy, me and all of the girls.

 After lunch we headed back to the house.  The girls and Dee played outside while Ben, Marcy and I sat inside and talked.  Dee headed home before dinner and we all ate whatever Ben made for us (I can't remember) and then had to figure out sleeping arrangements.  We set up the air mattress in Paige's room and tried to let all of the girls sleep together in there, but that didn't happen.  After giving them plenty of time to settle down we ended up separating them and Paige and Jada slept in Paige's room and Virginia and Jennesa slept in Virginia's room.

Sunday morning we got up and I made everyone pancakes for breakfast (it was a lot of pancakes!).  Paige and Virginia had their last dance class that afternoon so we just hung out at the house until it was time for dance class.  The girls had fun playing in Paige's room with the air mattress (which they ended up popping- oops!) and just hanging out together.

Virginia, Jada and Paige standing the air mattress up on it's side.

 And dropping it down on Jada.

 And then I deflated it.

 All of the girls (and Jefferson)

Jada, Paige, Virginia (after she got hit in the cheek) and Jennesa

 Jada and Paige

 Jennesa and her new BFF, Jefferson

 The temperature dropped drastically on Sunday and forecasters were warning that we could get something like 3-6 inches of snow Sunday night into Monday.  Marcy figured she'd wait until morning to figure out what to do, but still planned on leaving since 3-6 inches of snow wouldn't be too bad for driving.  Mother Nature laughed at the forecast and Marcy's plan.  We ended up with about 10 inches of snow so Marcy, Jada and Jennesa ended up staying another entire day and left Tuesday morning.  They did not come prepared for snow, but thankfully Dee had bought Paige and Virginia bigger snow pants for next year and they were big enough to work for Jada and Jennesa.  We also had plenty of hats and enough gloves to make things work.  We didn't have extra boots so the girls ended up with some cold feet, but they all had a lot of fun playing in the snow.

This is the view from our bedroom when we got up Monday morning.  

Virginia, Paige, Jennesa and Jada all ready to go play in the snow.

 Fun on the swing set in the snow.

 Jada nailing Ben in the back with a snowball.

 All four girls had a great time sledding down the little hill on the side of our house.

 Once everyone was done playing in the snow we pulled out a snowman cupcake decorating set that Dee had given us.  All four girls had great fun decorating their cupcakes- and maybe eating a little bit of icing.

 Jennesa with her creations

 Virginia with her cupcakes

 Paige licking her knife once she finished decorating her cupcakes.

Somehow I didn't get a picture of Jada with her cupcakes, but they were just as pretty and tasty as everyone else's.

Playing in the snow and decorating cupcakes led to some tired girls.  While watching videos on the computer Virginia fell asleep on Jennesa's shoulder.  Jennesa was nice enough to just let her sleep there for awhile.

That night Ben read bedtime stories to four very tired little girls.

Tuesday morning Marcy, Jada and Jennesa left for home after we'd all left for work and school.  They had to wait for some weather to clear out of their area of North Carolina before they left.  It was a great extended visit from Marcy, Jada and Jennesa and we're so glad they could come visit.  Hopefully we'll get to see them again soon!