Wednesday Play Dates

For the past 2 Wednesdays, we've had the pleasure of having the Fox/Mulrooney clan come down to Hastings for some afternoon playtime. Lisa's worked out a system with her mom, so her mom brings the kids to Lisa's work, they switch cars and then the whole crew comes down to Hastings. I'm a big fan of this system, I must say.

Last week, we all met at an indoor playground at Clancy's, a store in Hastings. They have a slide there and a bunch of toys laid out for the kids. All the kids seemed to enjoy themselves. The girls all went on the slide and William got in some quality time head butting his pal Anni. (That's how he shows love.) After some good playing, we all headed over to Panera for some dinner. I can't say dinner was the most relaxing experience of my day, but the children did ingest food, the only thing that got spilled was a glass of water and I didn't catch anyone giving us dirty looks. In fact, several of the older couples were looking quite fondly at our three girls running around trying to hug the living daylights out of each other!

This week, the play date happened at our house. Anni slept a little longer on Wednesday, but Abby kept a vigilant eye on the front window so we would know exactly when Riley got here. The girls both knew Riley and William were coming over after nap time, so when Abby hurtled herself down the stairs after her nap, the first thing out of her mouth was, "I want to play with Riley now." She waited patiently though (mostly because I told her if she didn't, Riley wouldn't be able to come play today.)

After some dinner the kids decided hide and seek was the game to be played and play it they did. Those children play the loudest and funniest version of hide and seek I've ever seen. They literally watch each other hide, the seeker then finds it impossible to find the hider and the hider shouts "I'm right here!" It's quite a floor show.

The particularly excellent thing about our Wednesday afternoon play dates, and my friend Lisa will concur, is that when they're done, it's pretty much time for bed and those kids fall fast asleep with little or no effort on their parents' part, and that, my friends, is a very good thing.