10 July 2006

Make New Friends...


IMG_1097
Originally uploaded by crunchy granola.
Liz wrote about our bloggy playdate pretty promptly, but I've got the photos! Here are the three fabulous kids at the end of the evening, tired, but not too tired to oblige us with a bloggable photo. It was so fun to meet Liz and Angry Pregnant Lawyer along with Mr. Spock and Not So Angry Husband. Liz and APL not only provided a great picnic dinner for all of us, they found a wonderful park in which we had a shady place for dinner and a ton of playground equipment for playing (although if you click here, you'll see that the children weren't the only people who exercised!).

We're all going to have to figure out how to explain to our children why bloggy playdates are so wonderful even as we counsel them about the dangers of meeting strangers on the internet, but that's a problem for the future. For now, I'm so happy to have had the chance to meet two of my wonderful readers, people I'd never met in person but with whom I fell into conversation and laughter so easily. The conversation was a mix of serious and silly: at one point, most of the grownups were discussing Mr. Spock's political activism and the things he and Liz are doing to help fight the Virginia marriage amendment, and at another point, Liz, APL and I were discussing what might be the differences between northern cornbread and southern cornbread. Liz and APL had several plausible theories (one is savory, the other sweet; the sweet kind must be southern, and the northern kind must go with chili), but Mr. Spock listened for a bit and said something like "you're just making all this up, aren't you?" in a way that just cracked us all up.

A few things surprised me, though. I'd been picturing Muffin Man as, well, muffin-shaped. But he's not! No plump toddlerness left about him at all--he's a big boy (reading!) and it was really adorable to see the way Angry Boy (whose sweet, sweet smile you'll just have to imagine) would follow him around and work hard to catch up to MM's longer legged running and jumping. Curious Girl (who, as you can see, is much shorter than the younger AG) had no trouble keeping up with the two of them, and it was a real treat to have such a kid-centered playtime in the midst of a vacation involving lots of meetings with adult friends.

So thanks, Liz and APL, for getting our vacation off to such a great start!

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

We all had such a good time with you. I loved how Curious Girl was quiet, yet not shy. She seemed quite comfortable speaking with the new adults she met. I had such fun playing with her at the merry-go-round.

And I'm cracking up at the picture of the kiddos. (Angry Boy apparently showing his relative youth by not understanding the command: "Put your arms around each other!" Hahahaha.)

Anonymous said...

I'm so jealous! Aren't they the best? AB and MM are just the cutest. I'll have to meet CG sometime too! I'm positive she is equally adorable.

Anonymous said...

Muffin Man has been insisting that he has a brother and a sister, AB & CG and can't wait to play with them again!

Anonymous said...

It sounds like the ideal bloggers' meetup! And now you can in truth state that you *do* know the Muffin Man...