M & M for a visit!!!

Cue the Marini cousin theme song!!!

Mason and Mikayla were in town this weekend and that is pure bliss for my boys.  To say that they idolize their older cousins is the understatement of the century.  Matthew and Ryan look forward to spending time with them and doing all sorts of fun things.  Matthew was super excited that they were coming in because they were able to come to one of his basketball games.  Matt hadn’t being feeling great, but that was not going to stop him from playing and trying to show off for his big cousin.  Ryan was of course thrilled because he has the best of both worlds.  He has Mikayla waiting on him and wanting to play with him whenever, and he has Mason who does everything he can to include him in anything that they are playing.

Here are Mikayla, Mason, and Ryan at Matt's basketball game.  As much as I love this picture, it is a reminder of how old Mason and Mikayla are getting.  They have grown up teeth and everything!!!  Mikayla just recently got braces and I swear they make her look fourteen!!!  On Friday night when I walked through the door and saw her and this beautiful smile I wanted to burst into tears and say..."When did you become a young lady???"  And then after we hugged and I gushed over her braces and the colors of the rubber bands, she walked over to the mirror and started playing with her hair.  Not the it's in my face and annoying me playing, she was fixing it and doing her hair in the mirror and it was all I could do not to grab her hands and make her sit on them!!!  Enough with the grown up stuff!!

The Marini Boys

Now, Mason showed up with this book about doing things before you are a grown up.  And making a volcano was one of them.  You can tell a grandparent was in charge this weekend, because if I had the kids and they came to me and said, "We want to build this volcano and have it explode!", I would have laughed them out of the room.  But, you mention it to a Nana and she's stopping at the store to buy yeast for the explosion part!

The calm before the storm....

Two very clean boys before the mixing started.

Count them....there are SIX HANDS in this bowl at one time.

When Matt said there was no room for Mason, he laughed and made room for himself.

Please note Ryan is waiting patiently.

Look at Mason owning this look.  Who said boys can't pull off pok-a-dots???

Cuteness.

Finally able to get his hands in there and start mushin'.

Nice family, group shot with Ryan protesting his picture being taken because he was busy. 

Forming the volcano.

Waiting for the eruption....waiting....

 Finally Papa showed up with something to help get things going.  Notice the adult is the only one wearing protective eye wear.

So excited!!!!

Ah, finally the volcano (with help from Papa) had it's little eruption.

Another fun part to this weekend was Matthew and Mason watching the Slam Dunk competition and then going out and trying to re-create every dunk that they saw.  Yep, even the one where the guy grabbed the teddy bear with his teeth and then dunked the ball.  Just short of rolling out Sharon's car and trying to be like Blake Griffin, they did pretty well and got crazy creative.  They also just loved being together!!

Who knew watching someone else play a video game could be so interesting. (Mikayla took this)

Here is Mikayla and I.  She took this too...using the camera from her ipod.  It was hard for me not to whine and say...."But, but, I want one too."  (I did actually whine about this.)

And finally, here we are on Sunday morning taking the doggies for a walk.  I want to give a special shout out to Lulu who was VERY patient with Teddy and tolerated him being around for a little bit this weekend.  I loved that Ryan at one point just reached up and grabbed her hand because he just wanted too.