Sister Love

I grew up in a house with five sisters  and no brothers. My poor dad was surrounded by estrogen. My relationship is very different with each of them. When my parents got married they each had children from previous marriages. My dad had a 7 year old and my mom had a 7 year old and an 11 year old. When my mom had my twin sister and I a year later we had three little girls doting on us always. We never lacked attention.

When we my twin and I were 6 my mom had my baby sister and she had four sisters to devote attention to her. My oldest sister had moved away a year previously. Sadly, my little sister never met her as we lost her at age 21.

I don't remember my oldest sister much, but I know she loved us and I like to imagine her watching over us from heaven.

My other older sister that has the same mom as I do was the sister that liked to pick on and tease us little kids incessantly. She also took us on a lot of not so age appropriate adventures with her friends and boyfriends  that I am not too sure my mother would approve of. Today I don't see her much as she lives far away. She does, however, make a point of letting us know when she will be around so the cousins can play. Three of mine and hers are very close in age and are very good friends. She places a lot of importance on cousin relationships because her very best friend growing up was her cousin. At one time she and I were pregnant at the same time which brought us closer. She is the more crazy, spontaneous, fun, laid back, go with the flow sister.

My older sister the has the same dad as me was always the little mommy type. She liked to take care of us, was always very nice to us, and always included us when her friends were around and they all loved us as much as she did. As an adult I lived with her and her family on two separate occasions when she was trying to help me out. Today we don't see each other much, even though she lives 40 minutes away. However, she is always good to my kids and sees us as much as she can. She is the more reserved, peace keeping, caring, sweet, sensitive sister.

My twin sister and I have always had a love/hate type relationship. We either love or hate each other fiercely. We can switch back and forth between the two every five minutes. It makes my husband crazy. As kids we were very close. We were each others best friend and were always looking out for one another. Today she lives fourteen hours away but comes to visit twice a year for two weeks each time to allow our kids to know their cousins. Read more about our relationship here: Tribute to My Twin. She is the more outspoken, persuasive, thoughtful, generous, fashionable sister.

My baby sister and I have an indescribably different relationship than I have with the others. Growing up I always felt responsible for her care and was very protective of her. I felt I had to rescue her and many times took on the mother role. After I was married I often took her to my house to stay with me and tried to be a trusted friend to her. No matter what she was going through I was there for her. When I moved away, she even came to live with us for a while. Today we don't see each other much, but we support each other in every aspect of life. We are kindred spirits. She is the more creative, talented, ambitious, playful and silly sister.

All of us are seldom together, unless it is for holidays, and then there are thirty other people around so we really don't get any time with just all of the sisters.

In 2004, we planned a sister weekend. I had one child and my older sisters each had two. It was pretty easy to arrange for the dads to have the kids for the weekend. I was gigantically huge with my second child and due any day so we decided to have it at my house.

Find the huge lady and you know which one is me!

 We had a great time. We ate, drank (mine was NA), talked, laughed and made sister scrapbooks. There was a pretty intense fight, after alcohol had loosened some lips which ended with one sister attempting to storm off after she inserted her foot in her mouth. She was trying to escape to the basement, but instead of opening the basement door, she opened the closet door. In order to follow through with her escape, she closed herself in there for who knows how long, too embarrassed to come out. That weekend was quite the experience! 

Fast forward ten years and we finally has another sister weekend in July 2014!

posing in front of the restaurant

Since the last one, my sisters and I collectively had 11 more children! No wonder we couldn't plan another sister weekend for so long!

The weekend started with us dropping 12 littles, ranging in age from 18 months to 12 years, off at my moms to stay overnight. We then went to the hotel. Freedom was ours. We swam, snacked, drank, and did makeovers then we headed out to dinner.

In the shuttle on the way to dinner

At dinner we had a lot of fun sharing wine, appetizers and entrees. After dinner, we decided to stay for drinks on the patio where we got a little silly with more laughing, talking, and drinking.

Posing for pics on the patio!

When we got back to the hotel, we had a bonfire. We drank, laughed and talked some more. When it started to rain we decided to swim.  As my twin and I were walking through the lobby we got in trouble for being to loud! OOPS! After we swam I realized I forgot my shoes at the pool. I went to get them and they were missing. I started panicking and looked in the room. They were nowhere! I went outside to find my sisters and one of them had them on! Nice. I went around looking and got all panicky for nothing. But once they were found, it was funny. We went back to the room and played a lame cheesy made up  Q & A game then all fell asleep. Only one of my sisters got sick from too much alcohol in the night.

The next morning I got sick when I gagged myself brushing my tongue! WARNING: DO NOT brush your tongue the night after drinking! Skip it that day.

After checkout we all went to collect our kids. Everyone was safe and sound. We all said our goodbyes and headed to our respective homes.

 It was a great weekend, and the best part, NO FIGHTING!! YIPPEE!!

Let's hope another ten years doesn't pass before we do another sister weekend!