Mentally I always think, “I want to be the house that everyone hangs out at. A place where all my kids friends feel welcome,” But sometimes I’m not so sure. Justin got home from work once when our house happened to be the house everyone was at that afternoon (luckily there are tons of kids in our neighborhood so they rotate houses frequently). He decided that he only wants to be that house when our kids are in high school… maybe.
One afternoon Max was bored and I wanted to be fun. So I blew up a bunch of water balloons for him and a couple of friends. They had a blast for approximately five minutes, then they ran through the sprinklers for five more minutes. Then a bunch of wet 3 year olds wanted to be in my house. Good thing Max and I had so much fun chatting while we blew up the balloons. The ten minutes of pure joy might have been worth it too.
Nine year old boys have so much energy! But they are always nice enough to include the 3 year olds in their madness. I looked over during the light saber war to see Anna rollerblading across my living room. Good thing she’s cute. So I took a picture before kicking her outside. In all seriousness, I love being surrounded by so many good kids. In other news, I am way too cheap to pay for school pictures. The kids were thrilled when I made them get ready for picture day, even though we weren’t going to buy pictures and pose for me. Anna was making a valiant effort to smile for me, but she looked crazy in most of the pictures. Luckily I ended up with this one. Josh was not making an effort to smile for me. But he was sure enjoying himself.
It’s a beautiful life.