A Visit From Cousin Ella

Ella Ruby Age 6 came to visit last week! I must say this was our first time having an extra child (without the parent) for more than one night and I was a little nervous how it would all go. The girls love their cousin, but adding an extra child to the mix for hours on end, well you just never know how that's going to go. Well....this went fabulous! In fact I don't have many pictures because most of the time the five of them just disappeared and played. At times Alex would come up and say, "They just do American Girls or princesses" and then I'd find a manly activity for him! Ella just seemed to fit right in with the "Hoefer Kids" as she calls them. It was so fun to have her.

The first night though was crazy! We put them to bed and checked on them around 10. They were literally almost asleep. Ella was sleeping downstairs with Hailey and Karis. Well, all through the night, I kept waking up, thinking I was hearing things. Finally at 3:30 I got up.....and went out to the kitchen....and Hailey was making toaster waffles for them. Ella was in a Christmas dress and for some reason the sight of them eating waffles slathered with syrup and Ella all dressed up made me go hysterical. I was laughing so hard. I told them it was way to early to get up......well then we realized.......they had never gone to sleep!!! All through the basement evidence of the hours of unsupervised playing was discovered. Playdough on the carpet, games out and mixed up, dolls all over the beds, my scrapbooks out. What a time these girlies must have had!! I couldn't believe it! I thought kids didn't do this until middle school. I'm actually glad they have this little memory now....and how proud they were. Everyone we saw the next day they would announce, "We stayed up all night!". They ended up sleeping until 11 the next morning. And they weren't too bad either....only one Hoefer girl was a little, well a lot, on the crabby side. Bursting into tears quite a bit.

We were all sad to see Ella go. We told her she could come back next year and do it again!