Hanging out with the Baileys

I would say in the last year we've really gotten to know our neighbors, Chuck and Jennifer Bailey. Not sure why it had taken us so long to get together and have the girls play, but so glad we have as Emma really gets on well with Madelyn. There is a year difference between Emma and Maddy, yet with the age cut off date with the schools, Emma and Madelyn will actually be in the same school year together which is great. We just don't know if they'll end up in the same school, as schooling here is based on a lottery system, so a computer decides which school you go to. we have one more year before we need to cross that bridge - scary!

From the time the girls met, Madelyn has taken Emma under her wing and is always making sure she's okay and shows her how to do things, very caring and considerate. Very very sweet. Addison and Grace are also a year apart, and they get on really well together too. They are the little rascals, very adventurous and always getting up to some sort of mischief. They are the second born afterall! They both have the face of naughty, but incredibly cute!

Last week Rod was going to take Emma and Addi to a museum called Marbles while I attended a parenting talk. It's a fun kids museum. Addi ended up waking with a fever, so there went Rod's plan for a morning with his girls. Chuck had spoken with Rod on the Friday and thought they could all go together. And he was very sweet to offer to still take Emma with Madelyn, so Em went on her first outing with her friend without her parents!! Big Steps!!

Emma had so much fun with Madelyn, kept talking about it and saying she wants to go again and saying that she LOVES Madelyn.
I had to laugh though...while at this talk Rod messages me to tell me Emma has gone out with Madelyn and he's home with Addi. I called and I had woken him up from nap!!! I thought to myself, why aren't I that lucky that someone will just free me of one kid for an hour or two and I can take a nap when Addi does! haha

So this weekend we thought we'd try do something again with the Baileys, and this time we went to a fun park called Frankies - this park had arcade games, a fun zone (slides, rope climbing, mazes), go kart racing, batting cages, mini golf, mini ten pin bowling. Of course the kids had a blast, quite a bit for Emma to take in. Us parents were talking about getting us some babysitters and maybe heading out there again without the kids for some fun! Madelyn had been there a few times and knew the ropes (excuse the pun) of alot of things, so she was sweet enough to make sure Emma knew where to go and what to do. Emma is a little hesitant when something is new (especially the fun house with lots of climbing and tunnels to crawl through, slick slides to go down which had given even me some butterflies), so there were a few eh's and ah's, but she pulled through and had fun.

This was actually the first time Emma has ever played mini golf, gone go kart racing, and played ten pin bowling too, she did pretty good and apparently with the go karting was squealing with excitement all the way - daddy took her out on the track. She was pooped after our 2 hours of fun!

Poor Addi and Grace, still a little too small for some of the things, so they just had to sit and watch, but kept asking to be part of the fun! So hard for the second ones always wanting to keep up and thinking they can do everything their big sisters do!

So after the busy morning and some lunch, we went home for nap. And then back over to the Bailey's for some more fun playing and having dinner with them. Jen made us a yummy clam linguine. Such a fun filled day for the girls and us parents too! Always good to have great neighbors and friends. Some photos...