playgroup

It is still amazing to me that we have kept our little playgroup going for almost 8 years now. That’s a long time. I don’t think any of us really thought it would work out as well as it did when we met at Gymboree all the way back in the end of 1999. All of our kids were in the same "class" and we just kinda clicked. They were all our first babies, we were all around the same age ourselves. We made fun of the kids/moms/teachers we didn’t like(horrible, I know, but they did deserve it and we didn’t do it to their faces.) Like Hunter who couldn’t close his mouth cause he was SO huge, the teacher who kept calling Beau "bew" and Ryan "brian"- Yeah, she’s a girl- that same teacher who looked like Salma Hyack from Studio 54. We started having playgroup every friday after gym rotating houses. At first they were all just lumps on the blanket when we got together, but they finally figured out that they could play together and became friends. We’ve watched our kids grow up together, have seen new babies born (lots!) since the original crew, lost one husband to cancer, held eachother up, vacationed together, given and received so much advice and support, celebrated together, cried together, painted, remodeled and decorated, experienced a bunch of relocations- some really far like Michigan and Georgia and some just further out on Long Island or to a new house in the same town (come to think of it, I am the only one in the playgroup who has NOT moved since we’ve started). Loved eachother. A lot. Laughed even more than that. I don’t know what I would do without these girls. They are the best. These are MY GIRLS.

Celeste was in town with her girls from Georgia so we were (almost all) able to meet up for dinner at our locale- PF Changs. Unfortunatley, these days it’s very rare for all of us to be together in the same place at the same time. Usually someone is missing. It kind of rotates. Then later in the week, we met at Maureen’s house for a kids playgroup. Again, Jeannie and her crew and Maureen and her’s were absent. Maureen will be in to visit at the end of the month (yea!!!!) with her kids. We have to work on Celeste and Maureen coordinating visits.

This coming March will be our 3rd year of the mom’s going to the Hotel Hershey for a spa weekend. It is the best, most relaxing vacation. Although it does somehow end up taking at least one of us over 7hrs to get there when it should be a 3-3.5hr ride. Again, the attendees rotate (Jennifer, Celeste, Maureen E and I year One- Jeannie just had a baby and Maureen Z couldn’t come in from Michigan. Jennifer, Maureen E, Maureen Z and I year Two- Jeannie’s sister was having a baby, Celeste couldn’t make it from Georgia) but we were really hoping that everyone could make it this year. Until Jeannie dropped the bombshell on us at dinner- she’s due with her 5th baby that weekend!!! So we will see what this year brings for our trip.

One of my favorite things about the kids getting together is that no matter how much time has passed since they have seen eachother last, they just pick right back up from where they left off last time. Now with the big ones in school, some of the middle ones in school too, and everyone with after school activities, it makes it really hard to visit as much as we used to when our big activities were gymboree or naps. But we will always make it work. We like eachother too much not to. And maybe there will even be some prom dates or weddings in the future. Well, one can hope, right??!!