Family Playdate

I am really lucky. I married a wonderful man and I married into a great family.

Yesterday I visited one my sisters-in-law for a play date. I brought my 2 kids to her house for a play date. They got a chance to play with 7 other cousins (4 belong to my SIL and 3 belong to my other SIL).  The kids' age ranged from 21 months to 11 years old. The nice thing about the play dates is that the cousins do a great job entertaining themselves.  My little Bug is enamored with her eldest cousin who has doted on her since she was born.  Boogie is happy to have a group of already made friends.  The day is kept pretty simple. The kids play outside or with whatever toys that are available.  But really all they need is each other. It's great!

My favorite part is spending time with my SIL. It 's a chance for us to catch up and talk about anything and everything. Usually when we get together it's with the whole family and that can be overwhelming because there can be literally 2, 3, or more conversations going on at the same time because there are so many of us.  When we get together for a playdate I feel like I get a better grasp about what's going on in her life and I get to hear about all the cool things she's doing at work, with her girls, or personally.

A friend of mine posted on her blog about a recent weekend trip with friends. She wrote that it was nice to be unconditionally accepted. You know, when you are with friends and you are accepted because of who you are and it's relaxing and you really enjoy your time with them.  That's how I feel when I get together with my SIL for a playdate: unconditionally accepted.

I realize that I'm really, really lucky to have that kind of relationship with my SIL.  We get along really well.  How lucky am I that we're not just family but we're also friends?  I sometimes forget that she's my husband's sister, but at the same time if I talk about Hubby, she knows him so well she knows where I'm coming from and she totally gets it. Bonus!

As Summer draws to a close, I'm bummed that we just started finding time to get together for play dates.  though we did actually get together 3 times this Summer and that's not bad at all!  As the school year draws closer we're already trying to think about ways to get together. I'm looking forward to it! Thanks, Sis!