Friends make everything more fun

We've reached a really lucky point in our 'hood. Right now everyone in our little area has a kiddo ... we have 9 little friends that we regularly play with and they all live a stones throw away. The kids LOVE it. I will say it is one of the unseen benefits of living in a duplex -- I never have to face the "Mom can I play at ___'s house?" because we all share this large communal play space right in my (um, our) backyard. All the kids meet up outside, share (er ... try to share) their toys and bikes and play together all summer long.

I will be the first to admit that I am a control freak when it comes to the whole "playdate" stuff. I'm not a huge fan of my kids going over to people's houses in the summer because it seems they usually end up watching a movie (if I wanted them to brain-off in front of the boob tube they could do that at home), or eating A lOt of treats, supplied, of course, right before lunch time. I know. I'm a control freak. I get it. So this outdoor shared space (where I can do the dishes and watch from the window ... running outside to stop one of my children from stealing a toy from a neighbor friend ... not like they would do that ;) is a perfect summer-time solution. The only problem seems to be the amount of otter pops consumed: To not feel like the neighborhood mooch we buy the otter pops to share with their friends. Well, apparently all the other parents have the same idea and it's not a rare occassion for the kids to get an offer of otter pops from each parent over the course of a long day of play.
Anybody want to go into business with me to create the first 100% juice otter pop?! Sheesh :)

And I'm afraid that I will likely get old and senile and forget all these kids names (not my own ... the other ones ;) but I don't want to post their picture and name without parental permission. So, here are their cute nameless friends :)

I love watching these two boys come up with their manly games. It rocks. They wash their "cars" and fill up the gas and fix their cars all day long. So cute.

Poor Marilee is too young to take in all the friendliness (even though the Rhoad's neighb0r baby is two doors down), so she just sits outside, crawling on all fours (never her knees on grass!) and soaking in the entertainment :)