Back to school ice cream fun …

Although the official end of summer may not be until next weekend, summer is ending for us this evening. School starts up this week and I am back to work at the church. This past week we tried to squeeze in some last minute summer fun. On Wednesday night, we had an ice cream party for neighborhood kids who will be starting kindergarten with Sarah. I sent out an Evite to 8 families and told them to invite anyone they knew who will be starting kindergarten. We ended up with 12 families. It was fantastic. Most of the children did not know each other, so it gave them a chance to meet some new friends before the start of school. I wanted Sarah to have a few familiar faces in the sea of nearly 100 kindergarteners who will be starting this week.

I provided the ice cream and everyone brought a topping. I have to say I was really impressed with the creative toppings we ended up with. There were all the basics plus berries, gummy bears and cute little cookie dough balls (thanks Megan!). The kids had fun eating their sundaes, but even more fun chasing each other around the yard burning off their sugar highs. I really enjoyed meeting some new moms (and a dad) and hearing about the school from the veteran parents. Sarah and I agreed that it was so much fun, we may make it an annual tradition.

Since we are just entering the world of "real" school, I would love to hear your family's back to school traditions.

I’d cross the street for you…

My friend Anna said a quote the other day that has really stuck with me. I believe she said it was by Eleanor Roosevelt. The quote went something like, "Many friendships are lost by people's unwillingness to cross the street." Okay this is probably a really well known quote that I have now butchered, but you get the meaning. It's such a true statement. So often in our busy, self righteous, modern day lives, we let great friendships slip away because we are just unwilling to cross the street. The street can represent so many things. Hurt feelings, misunderstandings, a move, a life status change. Our best friend moves across the country, and we are too busy to pick up the phone and call them – the friendship fades away. A friend slights us and we don't take the emotional energy to explain the pain they have caused, instead we let the friendship die. Life gets moving so fast that we place our friendships on the backburner, only to find them gone when we finally find the time for them.

Spending time with my college roommates this weekend, I kept thinking that you just can't make old friends. You can meet someone new to go out to coffee with, but you can't go out and replace your old friends. I won't lie; my little gang of college friends has experienced our share of issues. There were years when I was completely nuts, and other years when some of them were. We have had to come to terms with our differences in priorities, goals and religions. We have hurt one another, but we have loved one another more. They are the women who held my hand during the darkest time in my life and the same women who danced to Gloria Gainer at my wedding. Those are the type of friends you can't decide to go out and make. They are the friends you have to decide to keep.

Friendships like that are like a marriage. It takes time, energy and an emotional investment. That is what I love about Anna's quote. Crossing the street is such a great illustration, it's an active decision, and it's intentional. Crossing the street doesn't just happen. You chose it and you do it. The beautiful thing about friendships is that there is someone on the other side of the street, willing to make the same choice.

Do you have those friends? The ones you need to keep. I hope you'll take the time to plan a girl's weekend, or just night out. At the very least, give them a call just to let them know that you'd cross the street for them.

Girls Weekend

The girls, (also know as Heidi, Fara, Caroline and Manya) and I arrived at my house a few hours ago. We spent three great days up in the mountains. Our plans were thrown out the window by a major cold front that blew in Thursday and brought snow - yes snow - to the mountains. We cancelled our biking trip and went to the movies instead. We saw Mama Mia and did some shopping on Friday. Saturday we spent most of the day in our condo as rain and hail poured down outside.

Last year we spent the whole weekend saying, "what do you want to do?" "I don't care, what do you want to do?" So this year we decided to try something new. Each of us have developed unique hobbies and interests over the years, so we decided to celebrate by having each person pick/plan an activity that reflects their interests or life at home. It worked out great. Caroline, who just finished yoga instructor training, led us all in an incredible hour of yoga. It was wonderful getting to see a different side of her. I actually cried at the end of our little class, because she is SO amazing! I am so proud of her! Our resident crafty gal Fara, brought a fun craft for us to do. We spent Saturday morning beading and creating away. It was great for all of us to get to start and complete a craft without a preschooler interrupting.

The activity that I planned was a book club night. I love my book club here in Denver and wanted to share the experience of reading a book and discussing it together. We read The Geography of Bliss. Friday night we went to the grocery store and bought a variety of yummy munching food. We stayed up snacking and talking until about 1:30 in the morning. It was a great discussion book as it makes you thing about what makes you happy. It was a great way to really share what is going on in our lives at home. So frequently when you talk on the phone, you just don't say all the things that you can say in a face-to-face uninterrupted conversation. It was a wonderful night.

I will post some more pictures later this week. This photo was taken on Manya's phone and is the only one I can get to tonight.