Les Cousins!

There's a cute part in the children's book Émilie et le petit sapin where Émilie's cousins appear and all the problems with the petit sapin are solved. Ahhh cousins. Is there anything they can't do?

My cousins live very far away, in England. The one time I visited them as a kid I remember being in awe of all their Judge Dredd comic books and expertise in playing Gauntlet II.

(Tangent - I just learned that Gauntlet II has no ending. Damn Original Nintendo and its unbeatable games).

Margot is very fortunate to have two cousins, N and M, just 20 minutes away. N is eight years old while M is three. We invited them over on Saturday evening for some healthy* Chinese food and a play date.

The Cyprus Garden special!

They are a rascally bunch together and as soon as N and M's parents dropped them off there was a general sense of gentle bedlam in the house.  By this I mean, M occasionally broke out singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, while Margot and N engaged in intense and heated negotiations playing Pokemon cards.

(Tangent #2 - do you "play" Pokemon cards? From what I've seen, "playing" involves: (1) organizing cards on the floor; (2) reading the various powers of creatures on the cards [or, in Margot's case, asking N to as Margot can't read in English yet]; and (3) occasionally trading a card so you can repeat steps 1 and 2.)

Margot is an emotional soul, of course, so the evening involved the requisite crying. Fortunately N, who has quite a lot of Margot-wisdom at his ripe old age, was able to calm her down by giving her one of his Pokemon Cards. She was very grateful.

All-in-all I think the evening was a roaring success. Games played? Check. Socialization? Check. Tired kids ready for bed? Check and smiles (from the parents).

*might be slight exaggeration