Marysia's - Part II

Hot Tub Time With Lauren

Yesterday, Margaret had to fly home in order to be to work on Monday.  We had a lazy morning and it was nice to squeeze in one last bit of sister time.  Madeline also tried to squeeze out some extra quality time with her cousins. Madeline was in her glory to hang in the hot tub for awhile with Lauren in the early afternoon.  After taking Margaret to the airport, Marysia, Mike, Madeline and I watched my niece, Julie, play a Futsal (indoor soccer) game.  Julie did great!  Her team won and Julie scored 3 goals!

Slushies And Popcorn With Julie

After the game, we headed over to Target and a stop at Barnes & Noble for a little more Christmas shopping. Marysia and I were pleased that Julie was willing to keep Madeline occupied so we could do a little bit of undisturbed shopping.  Madeline was thrilled because I let her go with Julie to get slurpies and popcorn with Julie.  Madeline doesn't get this stuff at home so that in itself was a treat but going with her cousin made it that much more special.  Come to find out *after the fact*, the two of them were getting refills.  Oh well, that just meant wearing off a sugar high before bedtime.

P-U!

Dinner was barely over and Marysia and I changed into our matching PJ's again.  We joked that they were both pretty ripe by now since we have been wearing them the entire sisters visit.  Certainly, when I get home tonight, my PJ's will whimper and slither their way over to the hamper on their own.  I did, however, try to talk Marysia into ringing neighbors' doorbells and Christmas caroling IN OUR PJ's.  Although I still think that would have been a lot of fun, the idea didn't fly.  Instead, we laughed hysterically trying to pose for a picture where we were smelling our arm pits (in order to accentuate how yucky our PJ's probably were by then).

Playing My Little Pony With Tommy & Julie

Manicure From Lauren

Madeline further enjoyed cousin time.  She soooo looks up to her older cousins. Marysia's four children are so good with Madeline.  Where many teens might not want to be bothered with a 5-yr old, Tommy, Lauren, Andy and Julie take time to play with their younger cousin.  Yes, this is a picture of Tommy, a freshman in college, and Julie, a freshman in high school. taking a moment to play My Little Pony with Madeline.  Lauren even painted Madeline's nails.  But the funniest story (I took a video but it didn't turn out) is when Tommy was running around and hiding on Madeline.  Tommy ended up hiding behind the Christmas tree.  Any time Madeline touched the tree Tommy would say something in a deep voice, as though it were the tree itself talking.  This went on for quite a while and Madeline got quite a kick out of the "talking tree".  Madeline certainly knew it was Tommy making the tree "talk" but she played right along and had a lot of fun with Tommy's silliness.  Marysia, the rest of the cousins and I were also quite entertained by both Tommy and Madeline.  Finally, when it was time to put Madeline in bed for the night....that is, when the sugar high wore off, Madeline gave us all hugs and kisses.  She even hugged the talking tree.

Hugging The "Talking" Tree Good Night

Tonight we are flying home to Buffalo.  I am all packed up and just hanging out here the rest of this afternoon.  Although I love sister time and had (as always) a great time, I am looking forward to seeing David.  Certainly, the fact that David was in France right before I left for Baltimore and we were pretty much just two ships passing in the night before I took off to visit my sisters has accentuated how much I miss him.  So, although I will miss my sisters once I am home, I am looking forward to snuggle time with David this evening!