So long, playgroup

In an anti-climactic way, our Monday playgroup has ended. The summer started with this realization that Tobey and Christopher's school schedules for the summer were exactly opposite: Tobey T/Th and Chris M/W/F. And then soon after, we bumped Tobey up to 5 days of preschool a week, and rather suddenly too, and like that, our Monday playgroup as we know it has all but ended.

But what about the 2nd kids? We had a taste of the next generation of playgroup as during one of our last times together, the 3 big boys were upstairs playing peacefully (for once) and we moms were downstairs watching the little ones. "Ah, the days of parallel play", we reminisced as our 1.5-2 year olds tottered around independently of one another.

Back in the day, we wondered when our boys would start playing together, wondering the value of the playgroup if they never played with each other. But soon, they did and so did the fights and our transition from observers to referees began.

We realized that we can't quite do the playgroup for the 2nd kids since we all have to go pick up our older boys from school at around noon. We could do it either earlier in the morning or later in the afternoon. But both of those times are a little more difficult. So we'll see how the fall goes with school starting for Zachary and the 5 day schedule again for Tobey. But I have a feeling that my Monday mainstay for the past 3 years will become an impromptu park date on afternoons when none of our kids are willing to nap.

But I know we won't fall off of each others' radar. For one thing, we rely on both families for babysitting exchange. Maybe we'll have to do it more now that the kids won't see each other every week. We've done all sorts of day trips: Bonfante, the aquarium, the zoo, the past 3 July 4ths. We just went to Great America and in two weeks are going camping (well, everyone except me and Eli) so friendships are well intact. Just sad to see our Mondays suddenly open again.

Tobey and Zachary's first time "playing" together:


And a picture of them now-ish:



And a picture of all the kids: