Three weeks and counting...

There are times that I sit here in the morning and drink my warm coffee and realize how wonderful life is. I do not have to rush out in the morning now that Dev is home from preschool, I do not have any major requirements that I have to accomplish now and life in general is very relaxed. While I lived in Las Vegas I seemed to be going somewhere all the time. I did love it and I absolutely miss having coffee with my girlfriend and playdates with other friends especially now that spring is in the valley and soon pools will be opening for the season. I thought that maybe since we are booked up every weekend here in NJ for the next 6 weeks that I would be able to "forget" about what I moved from-but I do not.



this am in O's jammies



Truth is, I really miss my friends. I had a great bunch of ladies out there with whom I spent the better part of my week with. Riley just yesterday was coloring a Strawberry Shortcake dolly skirt with water and I was videoing her doing it bc she was singing Adele. Upon completion she said that "this is for Maddie." She dedicates most of her art to her friends Maddie or Olivia. She did make a craft shamrock the other day and said she wanted to give it to Cami another one of her friends. Sigh. I sent the video to Maddie's mom and got all teary when I did because those girls really loved one another. They are exactly a week apart and played so well with one another. She has some of Olivias hand me down jammies and prides herself in the fact that they were once her "best girl" Olivia's. She tells me all the time that they were Olivias jammies when "Olivia was Rileys age."

I did have our first NJ playdate yesterday. The kids have gotten to play with friends and cousins while we were moving in when they came over to say hi and see the place, but yesterday was just a play day. No more unpacking while trying to talk. Kids had a blast playing with a friend named Cole who is 3.5 and a doll. He ran around wtih both kids and they all played so well together. My kids have met him before, but it was a year and a half ago and neither one remembered one another. Needless to say, the lapse in time did not matter and they all jumped in head first to a seriously intense playdate of running around and being imaginitive. Devin was crushed when his buddy had to go but after he calmed down he said he is excited to go to his house and play with all his toys "since they are different than mine since Cole has a big brother and not little sister." Ha ha I love his thought process.

I am looking forward to many more days like yesterday, and that spring will be here in another month or so. I will be volunteering as the Neeta lax coach this spring as well which will help me stay in shape. I intend to run with the girls and play with them. The school would have had to cancel the season had they not have found a volunteer coach in time. My friend Deidre is the volunteer hockey coach and is teaming up with me to watch my kids while I coach the girls. Practice is 3-5 and that is nap time so D is coming here while I jet over to the school for practice/games. That is why I love SJ. People do anything they can to make things work-especially so kids still get a chance to play sports. So sad that the budget is that tight that they cannot afford to pay a teacher to stay after school. When I went there, the lax program was very competative and we looked forward to the season....16 years later they are struggling to keep a program alive. It is only 6 weeks (no preseason) so it will be over before I know it, but I look forward to meeting a new group of young ladies. We shall see how different they are (maturity and thought) wise than the freshman I had for a few years while I coached field hockey.

The kids are all settled in and loving living here. They are allowed to go and play in the back yard as long as they stay on the grassy/mossy part and for the most part they listen. I only do this when I am at the table or doing the dishes so I can see them through the big picture window. Our neighborhood is super quiet and I am not worried about them being out there alone with no fence. Granted I would not leave the picture window with them out there alone....but they love the freedom. Once we get a fence, they will get to play a little more alone, but for now I need to be able to keep an eye on them and make sure they stay out of the trees and off the driveway. I have met a lot of neighbors already. Most of them are older than us by a lot of years. Two of the four I met have kids that I graduated with, so they are original owners...and the others are mid 40s?  Our across the street neighbors are younger but not very social. They pull into their driveway and walk inside even if we are outside in the yard. The kids love watching the squirrels and birds in the back yard eat seeds and such every morning. I am so glad they get to see nature up close. I want to go on lots of field trips this spring to local places-Mrs Woodford, Batso, Philly Zoo, Cape May zoo etc. Love having that all around here. And of course to the farms to pick some fruit!