Play Dates & Sunshine!

We were very lucky to have both today! I love having people over in the mornings...although I am starting to wonder where all my fellow coffee drinkers are??? Still, I was able to make homemade coffee cake and visit with a real live adult, in person! Plus, the kids were able to play--which in turn allowed me to have a quiet afternoon while they napped.

The sun is shining today...and I wish we could be outside and enjoy it! I asked the kids yesterday if they remembered when they were able to go outside without shoes and run around without coats. Bree's response, "no snow pants, either?" Yes, dear, no snow pants either. When Josh and I moved back home, it was April of 1998. He was 7 1/2 years old. Within six months, I was able to buy an older home in a small town, not far from here. It didn't take Josh long to realize that snow really wasn't that fun. In the movies, they don't show how hard and frozen it all gets. Then the spring, after our first winter in Minnesota, he went out to play, and grabbed his coat. I told him he didn't need it. Talk about being utterly confused at first...then it changed absolute bliss. Being able to run and play in the yard without being confined.

That is what I am looking forward to, being able to just go. Not being trapped in this house. To walk to the post office every day, just because the sun is shining. Going to the park, and watching them run and play in the outdoors.

Tomorrow, we are going to celebrate Lauren's birthday with her super secret birthday trip. We did this for Bree--we went to the zoo and Chuck E Cheese, and they didn't know where we were going until we got there. Tomorrow, we are going to a HUGE indoor playground, and a indoor park, where there are trees and plants growing everywhere. I can only assume that there is a glass roof, to allow the plants to grow as naturally as possible, and with that I hope we can have today's sunshine. Then at least we can run, jump, climb and play as we pretend it is a day in July...not January.

Now excuse me while I curl up with the dog on the front mat and catch some of those rays for myself...