Dinner Guests

Last week friends of ours, Ben and Kristin, came over for dinner. Ben and Brad are in the Illinois Ag Leadership Program together.  We don't usually have dinner guests, I am not sure why but it just doesn't happen.  It probably has something to do with the fact we have 3 small children and we are lucky to get through dinner with out food being tossed on the floor.  Last week Brad told me that our friends were coming on Wednesday and it would either be around lunch or dinner.  It ended up being around dinner time and it didn't even make me nervous because they have 2 little boys as well.  They are 3 and almost 2 years old.

When I told Vince they were coming he was so excited he couldn't even take a nap, or that was his excuse.  Which was fine because he helped me get everything ready for dinner.  It was a lot of fun spending some one on one time with him.  When they got here after nap time Vince ran towards their truck screaming "Our friends are here! Our friends are here!"  The boys have really only played together one time and that was last year over Memorial Day Weekend, but the way Vince was acting you would have thought they saw each other all the time.  Most of the kids Vince plays with on a regular basis are girls and Joel rarely gets to play with any kids his age and is usually stuck with the older kids.

The older boys hit it off right way!  I am not sure if they knew each others names but when you are 3 years old it doesn't really matter.  When we were outside they were moving nonstop and having a blast!  The younger two didn't exactly hit it off.  Which was fine!  Two year olds don't always play together anyway and sharing is always a struggle.  Joel had his feelings hurt a little but the part that really hurt him was that Vince was playing with his new friend and not slowing down enough so Joel could play too.  Especially when the older boys took off in the Gator.  Joel couldn't believe that he wasn't the one in the passenger seat!  You could just see the hurt on his face.  The fact that they ran into him and over his toes a couple times with the Gator didn't really help the situation.

Once we came in the house the kids were up in the toy room or running around downstairs.  It was fun to have them just going back and forth without needing much assistance.  At one point the older boys were both in a soft sided tunnel we have and were spinning around saying "we are tormadoes" (tornadoes!).

The kids ate before the adults and it was the greatest decision ever!  They were off playing and we were mostly able to eat dinner without the kids needing us!  It was a great evening with friends.  Now if I could only have remembered to take some pictures. 

As many times as I have said (either silently or out loud) not nice things about the leadership program Brad is in, the one nice thing that has come out of the program is all the friendships he has made along the way.