Surprise!

What's the hardest part of moving for us? Leaving those we love.

So when we get a chance to get together, we grab it!
One of my best friends and I were emailing back and forth about homeschool curriculum. I finally told her that it would be so much easier to just discuss it in person!
So we set it up and she drove with her kiddos to visit us!
And...
not only are we great friends, but her son and Amarin are best buddies. Honestly, they could be twins, and we call them that. They are so much alike it's not even funny. How could two boys, born on opposite sides of the world, be so much alike and so close?
And Jenna is good friends with the girls, so we knew this would be a blast!

Best part...I kept it a surprise. The kids had no idea until the friends arrived. And they arrived during rest time. So I had them sneak upstairs and surprise Amarin first. After the initial shock, they all took off and played outside like no time had ever passed.

You should have heard the joyful noise when I told my kids that there was no school until Thursday! We made it to the zoo the first morning they were here. It was chilly, but we had fun.

Of course, there had to be a pizza/movie night, and a popcorn/movie night...way past bedtimes!

There were also dramatic performances by a couple talented young ladies.

French braids for Jenna.

"Rest time" with three boys in the bunk bed.

And how did we spend our last full day together?
Digging for toys that got buried by a bulldozer!
At first it was just us with one neighbor friend.

Then the kids started coming to help when they heard that a DQ Blizzard was the reward for finding the toys! Unfortunately, no one won the prize.


This may be the record for the number of kids in the yard at one time!

They just left, and us gals were in tears, and sweet Amarin was blinking back tears as he waved goodbye to his best buddy. "Mom, can you surprise us again?" he asked.