Splish, splash!

Grace was at our house for almost 24 hours. We're going to take a little break from sleepovers for a few weeks and then have another one closer to Nadia's birthday, which is only 25 days from today. Nadia has typically stayed up until about 1:00 or 1:30 when she's had a friend over for a sleepover, but last night Grace and Nadia didn't go to bed until almost 3:00am! She definitely takes after her dad not me in that regard. Surprisingly the girls were up for breakfast before 8:00, which means they got less than 5 hours of sleep last night. Paul went to bed earlier than he normally does, but he also got up and left for work much earlier than he usually does. He left for work before the girls went to bed! That means Paul also got less than 5 hours of sleep last night. I got about eight hours of sleep, which is much more to my liking than only five. 

I had suggested to Nadia that she play with the neighbors more. There are eight other girls in our neighborhood ranging in age from a toddler to a girl that just finished eighth grade. The only one Nadia usually plays with is Addi who is two years (and three grades) younger than Nadia. She knows the two other middle school girls as she was in AWANA and a summer musical program with them for several years beginning in 2011. She took my advice and played with some of the boys (two of them also just finished sixth grade), and she was invited to swim in the neighbor's pool for the first time. I'm very, very thankful that we have a decent number of kids in our small development. Including Ian and Oliver there are eleven boys in our development. Oliver and Westyn will both turn eight in August, and they are the youngest boys. The two oldest boys just finished eighth grade. We're also very thankful that Camden's family had a heated pool installed last summer and that they are gracious enough to allow other children to join them in the pool. Life won't feel normal tomorrow because we can't go to church yet (but that is going to change in just two weeks!), but today it feels normal. Paul is at work, I mowed the lawn and did a load of laundry, and the kids are swimming and playing with friends. "Normal" feeling days are a blessing in this very abnormal time. Any time I enter a store I am keenly aware of many of the abnormalities, but today life feels normal, even if we are still in the yellow phase.