Friends for Life

Every couple of years or so we manage to get together with friends from our past. Sometimes friends from growing up, sometimes college friends, sometimes friends from earlier stages of our marriage.

We have moved four times since getting married so there is no shortage of friends from these various life stages.

One of the first couples that we made friends with when we were first married was Gwynn and Chuck. We were living in Cookeville, TN at the time and had joined a small group at our church. All of the couples in our group were older than us and most had started to have their first round of babies.

We were newly married and looking for friendship, and also people who were slightly ahead of us in the marriage game that we could look up to.

We felt an instant connection to Gwynn and Chuck and enjoyed many coffee dates, hikes, and camping trips as we shared similar interests.

As most good things, our time in Cookeville came to an end and we moved on to Charlotte, NC where we started over in another small group where most of the couples were starting their families and we were not. Thank goodness we have been welcomed into small groups regardless of whether or not we were parents!

We are grateful that over the last 13+ years we have managed to squeeze in periodic visits with our old friends from our early years in Cookeville.

One year we met up in Gatlinburg (I think for breakfast) before heading into the Smokies for an overnight backpacking trip.

A few years after that, they came to see us in Hollywood, AL. I was pregnant with our first child and they had three little ones running around. It was a blessing to reconnect and get some solid advice and encouragement as we were on the brink of finally becoming parents.

And another time we went to their home in Goodletsville, TN and spent hours visiting and introducing them to our two kids. Years may pass between visits, but we always pick right back up as if no time has passed.

A week ago their youngest was playing in a local soccer tournament and it worked out for them to come stay with us for the weekend. During the days it was all soccer but we still a managed to fit in a great visit when we could.

Even though their kids are older, all five children seemed to enjoy being together. By the end of the weekend Jack thought they were his cousins!

Saturday night we had a campfire and enjoyed S'mores with the Moores, then Sunday afternoon we took a hike to a local waterfall. It was such a lovely weekend, I don't think any of us wanted it to end.

After a weekend of kids (and adults) staying up way too late, we all crashed (Jack completely fell apart before dinner). This meant early bedtimes for our crew. Thankfully both kids slept in until 9am the next morning.

We feel so thankful to have so many wonderful friends in our lives who have been a blessing to us at different stages of our lives.

Moving semi-regularly is hard, but we have been truly blessed to find good people who have loved us in each place we have lived.

I hope that our kids grow up to find friendships that will last a lifetime, regardless of how often or how far they move.

Christmas is Coming...

And we are keeping extra busy.

Friday we had friends over to bake and decorate homemade sugar cookies. The kids intermittently ran around playing while the moms drank coffee and talked. Win. Win.

The recipe I use is quick and doesn't require the dough to be chilled beforehand. I have learned that having to wait on dough is a pain when you have little kids.

At this age, cookies are not beautiful, but the kids enjoyed dumping as many sprinkles as humanly possible on each cookie they touched.

Thanks to my friends, the kids also had fun shapes to decorate, including dinosaurs, and I believe a turkey even made it into this batch of cookies! 

Once the kiddos were sufficiently sugar-ed up, I used my new Roomba to clean up the sprinkles covering the floor and then we all parted ways. It was a fun way to spend the afternoon and the kids had a blast spending time together.

After our friends left, I scrambled to get my crew out the door to meet Daniel for a little Christmas shopping. We spent less than two hours knocking out our present shopping before hitting up Chick-fil-a for dinner. Did I mention that it was our anniversary? Not the ideal way to spend an anniversary evening, BUT Christmas shopping is done, so I'll take it.

Saturday morning I had to wake everyone up to get out the door to have breakfast with Santa at the church where Jack attends preschool.

We started out eating pancakes and Santa came by each table. Then we were split into three groups and sent to do various activities throughout the building. The kids made a manger craft, then there was cookie decorating and reindeer food making.

Then we went to play reindeer games, we heard the story of Jesus' birth – from the point of view of Humphrey the camel, followed by the kids getting to sit on Santa's lap (Isaac was not a fan), and then ending our morning dancing to Christmas songs. 

Oh what fun we had!

Saturday afternoon I whipped up a batch of bon bons (my family has made these cookies since I was a kid), and then we headed to our small group Christmas party for dinner.

We enjoyed a fun evening visiting and eating, and ended our night reading the story of the birth of Christ, with a little help from the kids. 

I'm so thankful for all of the people who are a part of our lives and that we can celebrate by sharing some of our Christmas traditions with them.

Halloween Festivities, 2015

The past week has been a whirlwind of Halloween activities, and we didn't even make it to a Trunk-or-Treat! I don't recall my childhood having this degree of celebration. Overall it has been a lot of fun, but like last year, Jack ended up getting sick on Halloween day. I guess all of the festivities are a bit much for an almost 4-year-old.

Our Halloween celebrations started last Saturday with a neighbor's dress-up birthday party and outdoor movie. Jack had so much fun running around and playing with the neighborhood kids dressed as Iron Man.

This was followed by Friends and Family Day on Sunday at our church. This included a potluck and then an afternoon hayride, devotional and outdoor movie, complete with kettle corn, donuts, hot apple cider and coffee. We managed to stay until the end of the movie, even with Isaac!

On Wednesday night our church had their annual Halloween costume parade. This was Night #2 for Jack as Iron Man. He had so much fun pretending to be a super hero with one of his best friends who was Wonder Woman. 

 

Isaac was dressed as the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man and received quite a bit of attention.

Thursday was Jack's Halloween party at preschool. On this day he was a fireman. He insisted that the fireman was his "real" Halloween costume.

Friday night our small group had our annual Reverse Trick-or-Treat night at the Martin Boyd nursing home. We take our kids, dressed in the Halloween garb, to hand out candy to the residents and nurses. 

This is the highlight of Halloween for me and it brings great joy to the residents – many who do not get a chance to see children celebrate this holiday. 

Jack was Iron Man for the third time and Isaac was once again the Stay Puft baby. Most people guessed correctly what he was, but we also had people ask if he was the Michelin Man or the Pillsbury Dough Boy – all of which are good guesses!

Friday Jack mentioned that he felt like he had a fever. He was right, but it was mild so we gave him some Tylenol and hoped for the best. He had been so excited for the real Halloween, we decided to let him rest all day and make the effort to go trick-or-treating.

On Saturday Jack seemed to be feeling better, so we bundled both boys up and headed out to meet our friends. On the way to our friend's house, Jack brought up the fact that we hadn't cut up our pumpkin... one of these years we will get around to everything!

Trick-or-treating with our friends is becoming such a fun tradition. Jack rode in the double stroller with Wonder Woman and had a wonderful time, even though he was a bit under the weather.

Both boys were fire fighters (it was too cold for Isaac to be Stay Puft) and Jack collected a decent amount of candy (which will be subject to the Parent Candy Tax). At one house a teenager jumped out from behind a tree and I had a good scare. 

At another house there was a witch with a smoke machine. Jack marched right up to the door. At first we thought he was scared because he seemed frozen on the door stoop... then we realized that he was negotiating with the witch over which piece of candy he wanted!

That wraps up our Halloween week. Both boys fell asleep as soon as we put them in the car. Jack has developed a pretty bad cough, so we are taking it easy at home today in an effort to recover. Until next year...

Previous Halloween Experiences:  2012  |  2013  |   2014