It takes a village…

And I sure live in a good one!

I would like to share with you a bit of our village activity in the last 48 hours….

Wednesday: My Mom and I go to Detroit to hang out with Olivia (15), Noah (13), Sonta (13) and Jean Marc (8)

Thursday: Aunt Dot drives to Detroit to help us bring everyone back to Grand Rapids. Anneliese (15) comes from Muskegon and meets up with Olivia, Noah, Sonta and Jean Marc and they all sleep at Papa and Beppe’s.

Friday: All five kids wake up at Papa and Beppe’s. Early afternoon Aunt Suzi comes with Johanna (2) and hangs out with the five. Then she takes Sonta and Jean Marc and the eagerly hang out and await Peter (8) and Isaiahs (5 1/2) return from school. At 5pm Suzi comes with the current crew of 5 back to Papa and Beppe’s to drop off the five, who join up with the three who are there and pizza is enjoyed by 12, while Suzi goes to her book club. Papa and Beppe leave with Johanna to bring her home and soon we all meet up at Henry’s (17) highschool basketball game. Now the cousins are all happy since we add Karolyn (13) and Ellie (11) to the mix. And at the end of the game, Papa and Beppe take Peter, Isaiah and Jean Marc home to Suzi and Andy, Aunt Dot drops off Sonta, Karolyn and Ellie to my house and Arlene and Dan took home their older two and Liv and Noah for the weekend. Everyone has a cousin to hang out with and all will settle into their perspective places until Monday when cousin upset happens again and all should be sleeping in their home beds by bedtime Monday evening! We do miss Andrew and Ryan but they are busy this weekend at Wrestling tournaments.

This kind of kid coordination takes a lot of communication. We use phone, email, text and face to face….but even with that, messages get mixed up here and there.

BUT

In the end, the kids are happy and enjoy being together.