Great Friends

I've mentioned before that I have been blessed with great friends in my life. I mean REALLY blessed. I've had such wonderful people come into my life, and I can't figure out how I got so lucky. 

I'm discovering a pattern, however. I have these wonderful friends, and then they move away. Since we've been here, it never fails. It's always for a positive new opportunity, but, seriously, what is UP? Somebody stick around and put up with me!!!

In true Maren's friend fashion, the particularly awesome Dianna and Alan moved away after a couple of years living near us for Alan to go to school.  I mentioned that we stopped off at their home in Missouri on our way to Nauvoo, and then we also spent time with them a couple years ago in St. Louis for Independence Day. So we've been able to keep tabs on each other. They and their two boys came to visit. Hooray!

In true Maren fashion, I didn't take pictures like I should have. Good thing other people take them so I've got something.

The Sunday they were here was Alan's birthday. Tessa was so excited days before they came and told me she was going to be in charge of Alan's birthday party games. I told her that was fine and thought she'd make it up and forget about it. She did not forget about it and was determined that they would be what truly made it a party.

We had the Fitzgeralds over to make a complete party and ate dinner together. The kids ran around like happy wild natives --as they should. Then it was time for the games. The first was actually entertainment. A puppet show! Tessa had created several paper bag puppets, complete with a pig, a dead girl, a monster, and a robot. The picture below is a behind the scenes look at the magic happening during this puppet show. The result was fantastic belly laughs from the audience. Tessa had a whole story worked out in her mind as to what was supposed to happen. She got frustrated a couple of times because the puppets weren't doing or saying what they were supposed to do or say. It's a little hard when the actors playing the puppets don't know the story! They still put on a great show, and it was on to the next game. (Extra credit goes to Angie, eight months pregnant and on the floor to play her puppet part. That's a trooper.)

She hid pieces of the next game all over the house a couple days before. Coincidentally, I threw away colored paper shapes I found all over the house as I cleaned. Sorry, kid!
It was alright because she had another game ready to go. "Pin the Tail on the Cow." Tessa drew, colored, and cut out a three inch cow for this game. Then she created a tail about an inch long. The cow got taped on the wall, and fun ensued. I'm still laughing at this miniature cow people are supposed to come near in their blind dizziness.

That Tessa. I love her creative soul. She really wanted to make the party special for Alan, and I applaud her thoughtfulness and fun loving nature. I also applaud these great friends of mine who took part in her elaborate party plans and made her feel valued.
One morning we headed over to the park. Here are the three boys rocking away:

Peter and Cole are maybe two months apart in age. It was fun to see them become buddies during their time together. Here they are totally engrossed in Yo Gabba Gabba:

Alan is probably wondering where DJ Lance got his awesome hat:

Note Peter's signature tie. The kid has loved to wear ties forever --so funny. And pretty cute.

Cole has a fishing game. One thing that cracked me up is that little 15 mo Isaac got one of the fishies stuck on his finger. The things have teeth so that they clip onto the poles easier --ouch! He would cry and come find his parents to get the fish off. This happened repeatedly, and we had a good laugh about what his thought process may have been.
Okay, so the last evening they were here, Cole and Peter were laughing themselves silly. They were on Tessa's bed (the top bunk), putting the fishies on the little poles, and then flinging the fish across the room. I almost went to stop them since I'm not a fan of chucking things in the house, but when I saw the pure joy that came from it, I let it be. They weren't hurting anything, and I loved listening to their fits of giggles every time one would fly.

(Yes, Cole is wearing Paige's socks that he grabbed out of her room.)

In the couple of days that we had them, we ate yummy food, played games, wandered and played, entertained the kiddos, made Paciugo gelato a priority, and had our separate guys' time (The Avengers) and girls' time (shopping and chatting).
I call it our "Jensen fix".  We really needed that. We are so grateful they could come.
Two days later Cole looked around and asked where Peter was, like he was there just a minute ago. Took him a little while...