Playdate with Sarah

As a stay-at-home mom it is vital to have contact with the outside world. This contact usually provides itself in the form of "playdates." The general idea is that if your kids have some friends to play with, you will have the opportunity to converse with adults and regain a feeling of sanity.

Sometimes this sanity comes at great cost.

My dear friend, Sarah, and her four-year old son, Camren-the ying to Owen's yang-came over yesterday for a playdate. Its fun to see how the kids literally collide at the door and then just have at it from that moment on. Sarah and I have often been amazed at how well our kids have done in the past, playing while we gab to our heart's content. Admittedly this day was a bit more chaotic, but neither of us had any idea what was happening literally 25 feet away.

Down the hall in our small, 9X9 playroom the boys were having their way! Sarah and I, as usual were talking up until the last second before she had to pick up her daughter. As she is trying to cajole Carmen into leaving our house, our eyes were opened to the massecre that had become our playroom! Owen and Camren had emptied and turned over all nine drawers of my 3-tier organizing bins, a bucket of stuffed animals, three trains (not including the one pictured!), and several other rubbermaid tubs containing play food, dishes and other various and sundry items! Amidst the chaos were cars, trains, ponies, barbies, sporting goods, blocks, tracks, coloring supplies, mcdonald's toys, cheerleading pom-poms and more! Praise the Lord they did not climb up and empty out the puzzle boxes!

As I surveyed the mess a startling thing happened! I laughed, bid farewell to Camren and Sarah, and said, "Well, Owen, its a good thing I like to organize!" My normal proclivity is not towards humor, but rather impatience, but alas, God was gracious to little Owen. I probably should have engaged him in the clean-up song and demanded his participation, but the disaster was so far beyond his reach I didn't even try. I spent the next full hour returning each item back to its proper place. For good measure, I even vacuumed!

What fun it must be to be a small boy. And, though requiring a bit of a sense of humor, it is well worth the disasterous times!

PS: I totally had Owen pose for this picture. He had no idea why, but I knew it was going to be blogged into his history-FOREVER!