You've Got a Friend in Me!

Well I don't have the best track record for getting our family out into the social scene.  I often stay in my own comfort zone at home or am preoccupied with other commitments and don't make it a priority to initiate time with friends- whether my own or the kids' friends.  Not so this month!  We have been wheelin' and dealin' over here:)  For example, this week we've already had 5 extra children at our house and it's only Wednesday!  That is big for us.

I don't have pictures of all the fun friend time lately, but here's what I've got:

We had our first ever friend sleepover last weekend and it was a success!  Gray tends to be like me--enjoys being alone; likes friends but isn't that comfortable reaching out to new ones.  He is so used to following big brother around that when he is with his peers, he doesn't quite know what to do.  But he's gotten a few chances lately to hang out with a friend of ours who is also a younger brother and it's been great for the two of them to learn how to be buddies.  Gray was thrilled to have him spend the night, especially after Joshua had gone over to a friend's house last week for his first sleepover.

Happy, but sad.  We celebrated our final preschool this week.  The newest little girl couldn't come, but we had the two that have been coming since last fall and it was definitely bittersweet for me.  I love these girls--like, really love them.  I think at first I just like the idea of them, but as they have opened up and begun to trust me, we have really bonded and I am sad to be finished with our special time together.  When they first came, they didn't know their letters, still spoke a good bit of Spanish with their English, and couldn't write their names.  It is slow going to only work once a week with little ones that don't have the longest attention span, but they have made so much progress and I'm really proud of them.  Tuesday we worked through a little book I made for each of them with words they can sound out, then we got to the party stuff...

Making cupcakes!

Playing...this is some sort of group game they were doing of their own initiative.

Eating lunch (Yasmin's fav--chicken nuggets) and decorating cupcakes.

We let the boys decorate too.

And crafting with beads and pipe cleaners.

Last week we had our first try at having over a select age group of KNO kids to the church for a game night.  It was super fun and great to have a smaller, more manageable group.  Joshua had a blast with the other 3rd and 4th graders.

 Little miss social butterfly got some play dates too.  This girl is ALL about little girl friends and she is not shy about initiating.  She was feeling low after the boys were having all the fun with their friends so we asked a little girl from church to come over.  Turns out, this little one was also craving some friend time!  Julia ADORES her and they have great silly fun together.

 They told me they were putting on a dance show for me.  They came down, posed for pictures, changed outfits, came down, went up to practice, and I don't know what happened after that, but the show never materialized!  They sure were cute as they can be, though.

It has been a full month, though we haven't been anywhere or done anything super noteworthy.  I am so thankful for friends and looking forward to more fun times ahead!