I have three teenage girl cousins and for the last few years, I get them a very small Christmas gift and then take them out for a cousins day/night of fun. Every year I worry that they are not interested because I’m too old and they’re too cool but every year they seem excited and we always have a great time. Usually we try for an activity, a meal and a movie. As the girls get older they get busier and sometimes we can’t fit everything in. This year was tougher for me because it was my first year with E and he’s not quite ready for a babysitter for more than a couple of hours.

But our annual cousins outing was a great success again this year. I dropped E off with my mom (I taught her how to use the Beco so that she could wear E to sleep) and then picked up all three girls.

Our first stop was a drop-in hip hop dance class. I don’t know what I was expecting but this wasn’t it. It was just the four of us and the instructor. It actually was much better this way as we are all novices and this guy is the lead of a competitive dance crew so we would have been totally out of our element otherwise. As the lead of a successful dance team he is always on the look out for new talent. We were really just looking for a fun, one-time outing so I think he was a little disappointed. But he was very patient with us, sharing his philosophy on the meaning and culture of hip hop and starting from the very beginning.

It was a bit awkward for all of us but we had a good workout and had a good time. The instructor’s friend took some video on one of our phones and the girls re-watched the video over and over again throughout the day, laughing at themselves. Frankly I’d be happy to never see that video again!

The four of us then went to gather E from my mom’s and bring him to one of their moms to watch.  My aunt had been (her words) rubbing her hands together in anticipation of watching E so I wanted to make sure to give her that chance. At this point we lost one cousin to her friends and went for sushi. The girls said they were into sushi but I realized when we got there that they aren’t quite as cultured as they make themselves out to be. So I ordered a few different appetizers so they could try some new and different dishes and they enjoyed that so I was happy.

By then I had had enough and was worried E would be done for the day soon so we headed back to get him. He had done very well with my aunt so we hung out there for a while before heading home after another successful cousins day out. Now to think up an idea for next year.