I spent several days (maybe even weeks) arranging for Abbie to have a play date with one of her besties from school. Finally after much back and forth - when are the girls available, when is Gracie with us, when is her friend available - we had a date. I mean, OY!
Given my Pinterest addiction, I had decided this was going to be the best play date ever. Only problem is the 120 hours, 6 days a week I had been working. There literally aren't enough hours in the day to be the "Super Steph-Mom" that I really want to be. But dam it, I tried any way. The girls played in the sprinklers, threw water balloons (to the point where our fingers were sore from making them), played in the little pool, played on the swing sets, played inside, played chase Stephanie and Daddy with the water, I made crafts with them, and decided I would make snake bubbles. In case you aren't familiar with the snake bubble, I got my idea from TwoDaloo.
While the snake bubbles were fun, I thought I'm going to kick this up a notch just like they do on Pinterest. The "kicking it up a notch" involved putting food coloring on the sock and then blowing the bubbles. This turned into an epic mess. Even though we did the bubbles outside there was food coloring everywhere - mostly the kids! The little girl who was visiting was such a pleasure to have, had great manners and was easy to have, except when I showed them how to add it to their sock bubbles she freaked out that the food coloring was "all over her hands" - but in actuality it was just a little bit. Gracie on the other hand was COVERED. She put so much food coloring on her sock it ran back into the bottle and wound up on her lips, hands and somehow her entire feet! I then threw the girls back in the pool and thankfully after playing for a while it was gone. Phew. We then proceeded to make princess rings and crowns and 4.5 hours later it was time to call it day.
After we cleaned up the mess of the day, I sat back, put my feet up and relaxed for the first time in three weeks. As I sat there trying not to fall asleep I started to think, what ever happened to the days where kids just played. I remember playing outside with little supervision, knocking on friends doors asking if they could come out to play and where we kept ourselves busy for hours and came in when my mom yelled for us. Of course there were plenty of times where we made plans and did lots of fun things, but plenty of other times where we just were kids being kids and no crazy parents supervising every activity. I did my best (and CJ did much better than me) just to let the girls play at times, but the effort it took to get them together was HUGE and I felt so much pressure to make it "fun"! Why? How did we end up here? Why do I feel the pressure to have the "best" playdates? Why do I always feel like I am competing? I'm not really sure....I think its because I want Gracie to have friends, to have a fun and balanced and somewhat carefree life.
What I do know is, I miss the days of kids jumping on their bikes, riding around the neighborhood and being safe. After the sheer exhaustion of the day, I realized the next play date is going to involve a lot less pressure on myself.
