Friends in the 'Hood

So we have a great group of neighborhood friends that we play with, usually in the afternoons, if we don't have other plans. It's kinda nice to just let the kids go wild on our cul-de-sac and not be too afraid of crazy cars running through. And everyone shares their toys and homes which is so great. Best for me is this outside time usually occupies us from the time John wakes up from his nap to when Kyle comes home so I don't have to struggle with finding something to do. Physical activity is always a good thing!

The players:

Tyson lives caddy-corner to us. He has a cool climber house that the kids love to play in and his front yard is in the shade so we spend a lot of time hanging in front of his house.

Gabby has a neat play house that John is intrigued by.

We don't really have much of anything except for a climber toy in our backyard.

Elizabeth is new to the group and the youngest. We haven't seen her lately because she just had a little sister.

But the grandest house of all is twins, Dade and Warren, who have a huge inflatable bounce house in their backyard, a playhouse, a little tykes slide/playground thing, AND a sandbox in their backyard.

Isabella and Mary Carol have the best playhouse I have ever seen in their backyard that we just discovered last week. As a Christmas present, their parents turned their storage shed in the backyard into a playhouse and it is ADORABLE. It looks like a Carmel cottage house---literally. It has a dutch door, 3 little windows with shutters and flower boxes, wallpaper walls to scribble on, paint, laminate flooring, a scalloped ledge shelf running around the top of the inside wall. It is truly awesome. I love crafty and this is the ultimate crafty I've seen. Very cool.

So anyways...I'm so grateful that John has these little playmates. Who would have thought that our neighborhood would have so many kids near the same age...especially since it's such a small neighborhood.

Here's a picture of the kids in the bounce house today. It was near impossible to get anyone to look at me because the bounce house was just too awesome.