The End of an Era

It is the end of playgroup as we know it. I know that we will only expand to a bigger and better group, but the changes to come do make me a little sad. Molly is going to have her baby this week, and Caroline and I are soon to follow, so our group will be expanding to toddlers and newborns. Yikes!

As a new mother, I quickly realized the only way for me to survive infant-hood was to rely on other mothers for support. I had several friends that had babies around the same time as I, so I decided to start a play group. We started with many, and eventually became a group of about 4 regulars. We've had many trickle in and out and always welcome new players. Our regular group consisted of Lily (26 months), Margaret Anne(28 months), Thomas (24 months), and Mills (26 months). Mills had to leave us for a while because of his busy social calendar, but we hope to have him back soon. Porter (22 months) finally gave up his morning nap and has now become a regular player too. This fall all the kiddos will be starting school in the mornings, so we will have to figure a time in the afternoons that works for everyone, because we will continue on. These children and mothers mean so much to me and am truly blessed to have each of them in my life.

This is one of our first gatherings. We didn't have a playroom at the time, so I threw down some mats and we just let them roll.

Once the kiddos became mobile, I realized playing on mats downstairs wasn't going to cut it. We sacrificed our work out room (such a sacrifice since we used it about once a month) to make a playroom. This was the best thing we ever did. We now spend A LOT of time in this room. This shot was taken In October of 2006 of Lily, Margaret Anne and Thomas.

Of course we had to dress them up in their Halloween costumes together.

Where did Margaret Anne go? She's never been one to stay still for too long.

This shot was taken in March of 2007 of Mills, Lily, and Margaret Anne. There goes Margaret Anne again.

These shots were all taken today. One of their favorite things to do is to get all the blankets (and she has a lot) out of Lily's room and bring them into the playroom to play night night. I sometimes shut Lily's bedroom door to keep all the tots in one place, but this backfired today when I heard Lily saying, "help, help, Mar Anne, help me open the door." So much for that.

Margaret Anne and Porter playing night night.

Thomas, Lily, Porter, and Margaret Anne

Wait, Margaret Anne, where are you going?

The future playgroupers. We are going in reverse order this time with Molly's baby coming this week, mine coming hopefully in June, and Caroline's coming in September.