Neighbor Kids

In the past
when a kid knocked on the door
asking to play


I would grumble under my breath
and start to dread the mess they would make
and the fighting amongst my kids
and the emptying of my snack cupboard.

Why is it that other little kids
are always STARVING at my house?

And most of the kids that would come to play were older,
not wanting to play with my kids so much,
as they wanted to play with their toys,
and break them, and in some cases, take them.


and my kids generally play well together,
and are good friends and confidants in secret adventures
its really cute to hear and see.


But when neighbor kids arrive,
they hate each other
and no one can play together
and toys CANNOT be shared with a sister.

However,
we had a mass exodus of families
out of our neighborhood last year
and this summer,
a whole bunch of new ones moved in.
and we have had some fun times.



I don't dread the knock so much.
and I find myself laughing really hard
at the wild adventures that my kids stumble in from.

It was 94 degrees and they had all of Caden's costumes out
I thought they were going to have heat stroke
( Caden is the little Ben 10 with the skunk head, yeah, don't know...)


And by golly
one of the neighbor kids
did the impossible.


He taught Caden how to ride his bike.


Ryan and I have been trying for a year,
and after a 10 second tutorial from Jackson,
Caden is now zipping around with the big kids.

Its been good times in the neighborhood
this summer,
despite the sunburns and mosquito bites
good times.