when you're a kid at heart

Every afternoon that we are home and it isn't raining, within 20 minutes of the children arriving back from school, several neighborhood kids have descended upon our yard.  This big pack of children numbering nearly 10 or more, will run around the house, down to the creek, up and down the hill in the back, and jump on bikes and scooters and do laps around the driveway.



At some point, Charlie and I usually challenge them to a game of kickball and the kids quickly divide in to teams.  It once was that they objected to Charlie and I playing on the same team because we'd tend to DOMINATE and the poor children couldn't keep up.   But within the past month, these kids have become so unbelievably good and fast, and work so well together, it's Charlie and I who are now struggling to keep up with them.







The smack talking that we were doling out, is now coming back out at us.  "Hey Mom and Dad, you better run hard because we'll take you down like an elevator." 

Kickball!



This is serious business. 









We even have a referee...



Who sometimes serves as a counselor when a play doesn't go as expected.



It's an exhausting job.



GET ON YOUR FEET, GRACIE!



These moments, running around in the front yard playing a raucous game of kickball with our children plus several neighborhood kids, are quite possibly my favorite parenting experiences thus far.  We run hard, we play hard, we load them up on lemonade, and Charlie and I laugh like we're 10-years-old wondering aloud how bad it'll hurt us to walk the next day?





If you have kids - and even if you don't - go round up a bunch and play some kickball.

It'll be the most fun you've had in a long time.  Guaranteed.