The kids do love to play, though and over the years they have developed a few big group games and I have looked up some and of course there's always spontaneous play.
Yesterday was our first field day with the teen group and the kids were kind of excited. We spent all of Monday with Suzette and Michelle and their kids, celebrating their combined birthday with lots of yummy food and laughing so hard my stomach muscles were sore. So they had already had some 'friend time' and today Emily will be here for the day and Britney for the night-it's been a very social week around here!
Still, we got up and headed out, I grabbed some protein bars as I was leaving and everyone made a water bottle, though not everyone brought theirs...We got there at noon and finally peeled the kids apart (literally-they were playing elbow tag again!) and got them in their own vehicles at 6. By the time we got home, we were ready to eat anything that stood still-though the kids slept the whole drive back other than when we passed Taco Bell and there was a resurgence of life. We just ate out the day before! I had to claim budget woes, but if they want to go camping with friends next week, we have to plan ahead for that...
Anyway, we had a great time. I was a little bummed that there are 10 families in the teen group and I have only met 4 of them and only 3 of those came, so we have not met anyone new yet-the other folk seem to have joined in a rush of 'I will be more social' and then crawled back in their hole. One mom seems to have joined to get us to remotely fund her lifestyle via online sale parties.
But the kids that were there all get along great, so that was a huge plus, even if there were smaller numbers. They had a blast. This morning, I have heard 'I'm so SORE' about a dozen times. Yay!
The kids were throwing pinecones at each other and Nia was making sure the girls were well stocked. She would run and get the ones they threw, too.
THIS is the happiest dog in the world. Kids running and running, new people to love her, smells and best of all, snacks all day long!
In the 6 hours together, the kids ran half of that time and sat the other half, there were many piles and reconfigurations during the day. I bet next time, my kids won't forget to pack some food for themselves! There was a gas station about a block away, so I DID offer to get them something to snack on, but they declined.
They are playing telephone!
