Good Friends and Cold Fun

We are having so much fun this week, Stan is off work and we have been just hanging out with my mother in law, who came in town for Christmas. The girls have "shopped til they dropped" with their GG. Or at least shopped til GG dropped!!

Yesterday we went down to our 5th Avenue shopping area. It is a really nice part of town, with specialty boutiques and restaurants. There is a really great "wooden park" there, as my kids call it, with a huge grassy area to sit in and a big outdoor stage where there are often concerts or movies playing on a large screen. We love to hang out there, and even better when we meet friends.

My beautiful photographer friend was in town with her husband and five kids and they met us at the park as well as another dear friend and her six kids. It was really a cold day for us here in Florida - I think the high was only 55 and the wind was whipping! We moved around the grass in search of patches of weak sunlight. Baby got to wrap up in his owl hat, fuzzy coat and hood, and sweater suit. He looked like a little bundle of baby chubs!

I love the times I get to just sit and chat with girlfriends. It is refreshing and invigorating to talk about life with like minded friends. We could talk for hours about home schooling, raising kids, being helpers to our husbands, and of course, Jesus. It was a sweet time of fellowship while the kids played happily. We all left with red cheeks, cold hands, and full of the warmth of friendship. I wish I had more days like this, but the rarity of it, makes them even sweeter.

These are the days I don't want to take for granted, because my kids are growing up fast and I am so excited that they still want to spend a day at the park with their parents.