We love our playgroup
January 16th, 2008
Yes, we’ve been enjoying our lazy days at home. But we can get a little bit stir-crazy when we don’t leave the house for a day or two. Luckily we have awesome friends who drag us out to lunch sometimes. And of course every Friday morning we have playgroup!
I’ve heard stories about nightmare playgroups where the moms are all, “My precious Elroy was reading at age 2, and now that he’s 4 we just can’t get him to put down the viola till he’s perfected his recital piece. And how is your little Susannah? Is she still wetting the bed?” Meawhile, precious Elroy is bonking every kid within reach over the head with a toy broom and his mommy laughs it off as high spirits while the other moms console their crying children. So when my friend Bekah (whom I call my social director because almost every social activity I’ve done in this town has been at her invitation) invited me to start a playgroup with her and a few other moms, I was a little apprehensive, but jumped in anyway.
Now I can laugh, because that was more than two years ago, and we are still meeting in each other’s houses every week so the kids can play and the moms can chat. We LOVE our playgroup.
All the kids, varying in age from 18 months to 3.5 years old, get along with each other really well. As for the moms, not only do we all get along well, we are all friends with each other and spend time together outside of playgroup. Some of us go to church together, some of us are neighbors, some of the kids are at the same preschool, and we often call each other to go shopping, to the park, out to lunch, to paint pottery together. The only bad part about this playgroup is that so many of us are military families, we know we only have a limited time together. But even that makes us appreciate one another more while we’re all still here.
Last week playgroup was at Deborah’s house, which was bittersweet because it’s the last playgroup she will host. Her family is moving across the country in less than a month, and we will miss them terribly. They have some really cool toys.
Just kidding! We will miss Deborah and her family for much more than the cool toys. We’ll miss her sweet tea, and her sweetness and sass, and her knack for saying the hilarious thing that we’re all thinking but no one else would say out loud, and her bold faith in the Lord, and a hundred other things.
But mainly we will miss the cool toys. Can you blame us? Her son got a motorized Jeep with a working radio for Christmas from his grandparents!
He is such a little gentleman, and took turns giving all the girls rides around the back yard. We were all seeing shades of the teenagers they will one day become.
Even though we won’t always be able to be a daily part of each other’s lives, we’re making the most of the time we do have. I hope we all can stay in touch and have reunions every couple of years. How fun would that be? Ladies, whaddaya say? Five year reunion in 2010?
January 16th, 2008 at 6:02 pm
I love the second picture, Annalie looks like she’s very interested in what the little girl is saying :)
January 16th, 2008 at 8:16 pm
Bethany, When I moved to VA 8 yrs ago I found a playgroup in Charlottesville. I was so eager to meet friends I would drive all the way up there…the sad part was they were just like the playgroup you mentioned earlier in the story, ugh! They looked liked they wanted to turn me in for giving my children McDonalds for lunch lol…needless to say, I quit going. I wish we lived closer, I am so jealous! ;) Your playgroup gals look terrific, enjoy your Fridays together!!
January 16th, 2008 at 8:21 pm
You guys look like you are having so much fun. And was it planned that you guys all wore red that day?
As for those nightmare playgroups, I know a few of those and try to steer clear. My son may not know how to write the alphabet, but he can play a mean game of hockey with teenagers to boot.
It was our Valentine’s Day party, so we all just happened to wear shades of red or pink. :-)
January 17th, 2008 at 12:34 am
Wow. You inspire me to want to set up my own play group! And that’s a pretty big undertaking!
January 17th, 2008 at 9:53 am
What a great group of friends!
I have a great group here too - they are a true blessing :)
January 17th, 2008 at 11:20 am
Hi Bethany, thanks for the cupcake advice, will google that recipe. Thanks again for taking the time. Starryprincess, Toddler group in your house,hats off to you ladies. I run a toddler group but in our church hall and that’s work enough.
January 17th, 2008 at 1:06 pm
What an awesome group you’ve got :)
January 17th, 2008 at 3:00 pm
OMG! Bethany, reading your post was like reading an account of our playgroup (minus the military family part)! When I moved back to Florida, I didn’t really know anyone besides my family members. So, I decided to enroll Wildman in program called Labschool when he was 8 months old. Through Labschool I met a bunch of wonderful moms and we formed a Friday morning playgroup. Our babies have grown into preschoolers together. It’s been bittersweet for us too as we’ve had one of our families move away recently. And now that our children are in preschool it’s difficult to meet. But just this week we all managed to gather for lunch at a park just like old times. I love playgroup too! It’s so fun to look back at old pictures of the kids playing and see how much they’ve changed.
It’s so nice to have great friends to share the experiences of raising children! I’m glad you have these people in your lives!!!!
January 17th, 2008 at 4:01 pm
My previous playgroup experience was the first one you described. Where little Petunia sings at perfect pitch and reads to the blind at age 2 and little Orville is a master sculpter/electrician/juggler at age 4. Meanwhile, there they are in the corner, picking their noses and eating it’s contents.
I know how hard it is to move to a place, make friends, and then have to leave a few years later. I’m hoping that one day, since we’re both Navy wives, our paths will come close to each other so we can have playgroups and pottery dates together!! :)
January 17th, 2008 at 4:22 pm
Aileen and Bethany- I hope you both get stationed in Jacksonville or GA so I can come to the playgroups and pottery dates too!!!!
January 17th, 2008 at 6:03 pm
Oh gosh this post made me cry. I miss our playgroup so badly. Since moving here we have been invited to a few playdates but they were the type you described in your nightmare. Such a loverly post!
January 17th, 2008 at 10:58 pm
I kind of want that Jeep. That was the sort of thing I dreamt of as a child.
January 18th, 2008 at 9:41 am
Wow. I hope someday I can find a playgroup similar to yours. I love the pictures.
It is really interesting to me that you are military families. I am right now looking into the JAG and have no clue anything about the military - would you be willing to email with me about it?
January 20th, 2008 at 6:21 pm
Awww! What a fun group! We live in such a transient society now, it often makes it hard to really put down roots. It’s so easy to be too afraid of being uprooted again to let yourself bloom while you’re planted. I think it’s so great that your group of girlfriends has thrown caution to the wind in this way! It’s the kind of thing that makes life worth living.
I treasure all of the friends that I have made in each place we have lived.
Thanks for sharing this!
January 31st, 2008 at 8:34 pm
[...] evening is the girls’ night farewell party for Deborah, at her house, where we’ll eat all sorts of calorie-laden treats and watch a movie and give [...]
July 25th, 2008 at 9:37 am
[...] plans for her family to come visit us in a couple of weeks, woohoo! We have not seen them since they moved from Maryland to California last February. I am really looking forward to seeing D and her family again and I know Annalie will [...]
August 9th, 2008 at 12:21 am
[...] good friend Deborah was one of the moms in our playgroup back in Maryland. She and her family moved to California six months before we did. They live a few hours’ drive away from us now, which is [...]