First half of "a week with kids"

This story goes back a couple of weeks but I've been busy or lazy or something. Actually, I haven't really felt like writing.

During the summer we host our neices and nephew for overnighters. Tara has an agreement with them that once they turned 7 they could spend one night a month rotating between all the other kids who are at least 7 (there are currently 3). Well, something happened and we ended up with two sisters, Jahliya & Yasmin (I think I spelled their names correctly), at the same time. Yas is the older, she's 9. She is kinda quiet & shy. She is the girliest one of the family, most like her mother. You know, the "Ewwww, gross it's a bug." kind of girl. I can also see her acting more and more like the oldest, telling the younger ones what to do or directing them toward or away from activities and things. Her insane younger sister, Jahliya, is 7 and she loves to play in the dirt. She goes to Grandma Bonnie's and helps with the garden basically by removing the dirt from the grown and putting it on her body. She's funny and very patient but when she's wired she is W-I-R-E-D.

They picked me up from work and we went home. The girls and Tara had spent the day canoeing so showers were the first order of business. Then came food and this is where I came in. Tara wanted me to cook with them while she showered. So, I tell them what we have and Jahliya wanted beans.., she took every can of beans she saw and was ready to open all. I persuaded her not to open all of them. They worked really well together and really well with me. Nobody's finger was cut, nobody's hair was singed and the food was good. Yaz also made sure we had a menu, a glorious 3rd grader style menu. After dinner it was movie time and the girls wanted to watch different movies. Tara set Yaz up at the upstairs TV and Jahliyah, the younger sat with us and very surpisingly watch "Diary of a Mad Black Woman" (not recommended unless you are a Christian and have lost faith). This is a PG-13 movie that deals with adult themes but she, a 7 year old sat there like a trooper. She got a little squirmy a couple of times but for the most part she was wonderfully quiet. A couple of times she was, unbeknownst to her, the source of fun for Tara and me. I, as usual, was the last one in bed and when I walked past the guest bed and they were sprawled out on top of each other, no covers, legs, arms and hair going in all different directions. Eventhough there was a lot of sniping and bickering they did pretty well together.