Good friends, good times

Almost a year ago, some of our neighbors made a very difficult move to Texas. It was a very sad day (click here) but they promised to return for our neighbor Andrea's graduation in June 2011. And thankfully the year went fairly quickly and we were so excited to have them back for a week. It really felt just like they had never left.....we all just picked back up right where we had left off (even the kids!)

The ice cream truck......a special treat for my kids since I rarely say they can get something, although I do love that we have an ice cream truck in our neighborhood!! (It's run by a high school kid who bought an old van, converted it, and makes all kinds of money off the rest of us--pretty smart kid!) But I don't think I will ever get sick of such a wonderful sight as this....

Grace, Kendall and Wyatt are all the same age (and Sadie, who thinks she is the same age!)

Thankfully we had some nice days to spend at the pool also

Lillie and Sadie

Lillie, Kendall, Grace and Wyatt

Blake loved looking at himself in my camera phone

Pointing to himself, saying "Bay...Bay" for Blake

Blake was exhausted and took turns hanging out with the kids in our neighborhood, but he seemed especially fond of Nate and his water gun.

Who ate the rest of the dried strawberries?

On the Van Beveren's last night in town, we had a cookout and bonfire.

Doesn't this look like the place to be?


Andrea (my kids' favorite babysitter) and her mom Carol, our next door neighbors


Blake saw no reason why he couldn't go where the big kids were....but he found it a bit tough to get out

Sadie started the week playing with Wyatt and Kendall and Grace, but once her and Emmy realized they were both 4 years old, they decided to play with each other instead. Hilarious!!

So while the other kids were playing hide-n-seek, they sat and read books...
..and played with their babies...

I thought this was too funny....nothing like a mobile firepit!! Matt and Joel brought it down the street and the kids brought the firewood.
We had so much fun while the Van Beverens were in town and it was almost harder to see them leave our neighborhood, knowing that it might be awhile again before we saw them. But we are that much more aware that everyone may not be in our neighborhood forever, so we need to enjoy what we have right now. And we are thankful, everyday, for how blessed we are to be where we are.