Friends

 I have some amazing friends. I've been thinking a lot about friends lately, especially as I've watched my kids form friendships these last few years. 

David had a pretty good crew of kids he was friends with in elementary school, but middle school was cruel, and David asked to be home schooled. Those boys all still enjoy seeing one another, but time and circumstances are getting in the way. This means that David has been relying on his friendships with the boys from church. Fortunately, they are all the same type of nerdy gamers, and they all will get on and play games online, get onto their Discord calls and laugh and joke with each other. They have fun. I miss the days that we could do play dates.

Andrea has Ben. They've been best buds for so long. I am always so happy to see them playing together, they have the most imaginative adventures together. Andrea has struggled some with being friends with girls. She's found them to be a little mean and focused too much on phones. What's with that? What would she be like with a phone? I really don't know. I hope she'd be nice. Maybe it is a good thing none of my kids are on social media.

Peter spends a lot of time with Elizabeth these days. He can also make friends wherever he goes, and he enjoys playing with the kids from his den at cubs, or with his buddies from church. He likes to pull out the wolf ears and capes with his BFF Lucy, and they play all sorts of funny games. Again, like the big kids, he's got friends on Roblox.

I've had amazing friends throughout my life. But I have to say, there's something totally different about making friends as an adult. I've got this interesting dynamic I've got to work with where I'm not just making friends with other women, but its extra nice if our kids get along and our husbands can all hang out together. It was something I had never thought of as a kid. And I've been incredibly lucky in these friends we've made here in Michigan.

Melissa and I share a birthday, how crazy is that?? Our family busted out of our eight week quarantine shortly before my birthday this year, so we three had a lot of fun being incredibly goofy to celebrate. Brunch, and thrift store finds, then we played with my camera and got some very flattering photos.

I'm incredibly grateful for these amazing ladies. I'm so glad our kids all get along! I'm so grateful that our husbands have the same nerdy passions (Tyler and Jonathan even randomly have the same LOTR shirt).

I realized I'd never documented the birthday shenanigans. So now it is on the internet, it is never going away, and I'm glad I've got these fun memories documented always. :)