an evening with five kids

no we did not adopt three children in the last week. but we did start our summer babysitting/date night co-op with another family tonight. we are excited to have regularly scheduled dates once again. this practice fell to the wayside in preparation for the move last fall and it has been sorely missed. so, we are doing an every other week switch with a family from church. they also happen to live less than a block from our new house (super fun. and only 8 more days -kinda). we had a blast playing outside in the beautiful weather but let me tell you - a 17 month old, a 2 1/2 year old, a 3 year old, a 5 year old, and an 8 year make for some busy adults. jesse and caleb (the oldest) competed in a soccer match and a martial arts battle. gia climbed up and down the deck stairs for 2 hours. luca, max, and jack climbed, swung, and hung out on the play structure (when they weren't trying to make the bushes snow flower petals on their heads.) there were surprisingly few fights and skirmishes. my fave part of the night was watching gia take in the utter chaos of 4 boys on bikes, a scooter, and a push toy, yelling at the tops of their lungs and playing, "crash" (self-explanatory) and then making a run for it to the safety of the grass behind the fence. (no pics - for the first time in 3 1/2 years i can not find my camera battery - bummer, but i am sure it will turn up soon.)