Tuesday, September 15, 2009

The Boys of Summer...


I LOVE this picture! These are the boys of summer! I'm not sure they ever all sat down like this at one time, not doing all the "love" hitting, shoving, laughing, squirming thing that boys do so well.

Our neighborhood is inundated with boys! The way these guys play, reminds me so much of my childhood - everybody playing together, outside, all different sorts of games (basketball, baseball, tag, hide and go seek, water fights, etc) going on at the same time, all summer long.

The days dragged by when one household was on vacation. The rejoicing, extra sweet when the family returned, had barely pulled into the driveway and those left behind attacked and pulled out the long lost playmates.

We even started sharing meals together. It just made sense. Synchronized dining. Instead of the chaos created by staggered dinner times going on in separate households. Door bells ringing during your 15 minutes of table time. And at least in my house, dining to "Are we done? Can we go out now? But, Mommmmm, they're playing basketball! I wanna play basketball! We're gonna miss them. Are they inside now? Puh-leeeze, can we go outtttttttttt?"

Dining together - everybody prayed. Everybody ate (for the most part), they all talked and shared jokes, they cleaned up, then, together, they went back out into the great outdoors!

Sadly, school has interrupted our daily backyard camp (okay, fine, yes, truthfully, more like the frontyard), the days are shorter, nighttime comes so quickly, but we're currently still managing to hang on to those glorious 45 minutes or so when all boys are home, outside, fully energized and ready to play! Parents have adjusted, once again, synchronizing homework and meal times to allow for optimal playtime!

It's fun. It's sweet. I'm very blessed and very thankful to have such wonderful neighbors!

9 comments:

Jamie said...

That is the sweetest post...I love the bonding...neighbors become "brother's"!!! I only hope my two will have that...there are lots of kids and even one on the way...so, things are looking good for us! have a great week!

Steph said...

How awesome!!! I wish we had neighbors like that! We rarely even see our neighbors. Quite boring.

Back yard agains...Ya know! I never really thought about it! I clearly got the "backyard" part (yes, I am an einstein!). Too funny! I definitely enjoy it myself and we are frequently singing backyard songs at our house, too!

Bobbi said...

Sounds like the PERFECT neighborhood. We are hoping to find one like that. Friends are the best "family"

Guatmama said...

That is really cool!

Lani said...

aw, what a great photo..

Hannah said...

What an awesome group! I love that the parents all decided to have dinner together...what a great idea. Those kinds of summers are the kind you remember forever!

Twincerely,Olga said...

What a sweet post!!!

Anonymous said...

What a great photo. Sounds like a fun neighborhood! We have 7 kids 6 and under on our cul-de-sac. We may have to try the community eating next summer as it was painful to have to pull them away from each other for the 12 minutes it took the kids to shove the food in their mouths.

Heidi said...

How on earth did you get them all to sit still and near each other like that? That is awesome you have neighbors like that. We don't! I hope we do when we move to the midwest.