Cousin carnival!!!

The moment I saw this cousin carnival on Pinterest, I knew I wanted to do this with my husband’s side of the family this summer!!  My sister-in-law’s reaction was classic, “OH NO!! (groan), really??”  But she backed me up after I explained to her that it wasn’t all about my love of a good party;), but it actually was a great backdrop for Justin to be comfortable around a crowd of people he hadn’t seen in years.  That’s all it took, and she was in!!

We are the only family not living in the same state as my husband’s family—go ahead, call us the outcasts, we don’t mind!!  This meant my fabulous sister-in-laws did most of the work in getting this ready (you are awesome Krista!!).  We adapted games from the carnival post from Pinterest and then made up some of our own.

There was a bubble station full of all sorts of fun bubble stuff including a homemade, giant bubble maker!!  And there were party favors at all the tables for prizes.

Then there was a ring toss to win a bottle of soda…

My husband’s sister and kids made a bean bag toss and bean bags—how’s that for crafty relatives!!  They weren’t able to come, but still wanted to contribute to the fun—so sweet!

The ball toss through the inflatable tubes was a big hit for Justin…in his own way;)

And we also had a shaving cream table and toys for the kids to run through the cream—this is one of Justin’s favorite therapy activities and he wouldn’t touch it at the carnival!!!  Sometimes the best laid plans…

but everyone else loved it!

I can’t describe how memorable this was for all of us—even with Mr. Justin resisting the games, he happily played iPad games and schemed stealing cupcakes:) and he didn’t have any meltdowns!!  The boy cousins liked watching him play the iPad, and he didn’t mind letting them!!

I don’t think we needed a carnival to have a good time with our family, but there’s something wonderful about planning something together and being united in any kind of cause where you can serve each other—it just brings a wonderful spirit of bonding to any event.  Priceless!!