How To Be A Kid Again!

There is a certain level of maturity we adults, feel like we have to uphold and sometimes that just gets down right old. When we host dinner parties, we sit around sipping our crystal light lemonade, chatting about birthing stories, motorcycles, shopping and marital differences. We enjoy our food, watch a movie on someone's 32" television and then go home way too early so we can put our ornery kids in bed at a decent hour. I am exhausted just thinking about all the fun we had.

Not!

It is time...you married, boring, cliche people. It is time to stop yawning and get back to our youth. Back to the days of irresponsibility and goofy fun. Now, we all still have kids so you can't throw caution completely to the wind, but let's at least let our hair down and do things out of the ordinary. Even if it might make us look like a total dork. Let's feel the rush of being silly.

I speak personally about some activities that a friend of mine from high school and I get together and do with our families.

Jason and I are old friends. We knew each other in Kindergarten and I am sure even before that. We grew up together, our families are friends and we graduated together. We were boyfriend/girlfriend in 7th grade. We went to prom together, walked in graduation together and played kick the can with our group of LDS friends almost every weekend. I would say that he is one of my oldest and dearest friends and I know him better than almost my own siblings. After our first year of college at Ricks together, he went on his mission and I continued school and got married and then he followed suit soon after. We have not spoken in years due to the distance in miles between us and then just last summer I learned that he and his wife (who's name is also Rachel) and two kids had moved to Olympia and I to Maple Valley, just 45 minutes apart. We spent time over the summer catching up and visiting old friends at our 10 year high school reunion. We decided to start having monthly parties to allow friendships to bloom outside of our community circles. And that is where this whole story leads me.

Almost monthly, we get together with friends that we each know, inviting new ones all the time and do activities that require little brain power and a lot of child like abilities. We meet at different places and always have things for the kids to do so we adults can really have a good time. It is for us!! We have built popsicle boats and floated them, had a Wii tournament and played water kickball. Together we have solved a murder mystery, designed evening wear in an hour and played the newlywed game. We have taste tested pizza and root beer, raced potato derby cars and played Uno for hours. We always have great food and always make new friends.

I encourage you to get back to your roots and try something out of the ordinary. Host a party where you compete in relay races, get muddy or toilet paper someone's house. It really brings out the smiles in everyone.

JUNE 2007 - S'more Bonfire complete with a variety of marshmallows and chocolate for experimenting.

SEPTEMBER 2007 - Guys built popsicle stick boats that had to float and the girls designed evening wear with specific fabrics and with only 60 minutes. Everyone makes their own personal size pizza with a huge variety of toppings.

NOVEMBER 2007 - Potato Derby complete with "Darth Tator" and our winner Jared with his potato car trophy.

FEBRUARY 2008 - Valentine's Day party at the privately reserved Children's Museum. Newlywed game, Romantic Movie Pictionary and lasagna.

MAY 2008 - Kickball where the bases are buckets of water and the kids keep busy with the play dough table. Chicken recipe competition over the grill where the winner gets box of Chicken in a Biskit crackers as trophy.

MAY 2008 - Memorial Day barbecue with all you can eat shrimp, ribs, chicken, strawberries, watermelon and chips. Played card games until 8pm while the kids built forts with umbrellas and played with homemade playdough.

JUNE 2008 - Wii bowling, tennis and racing. We also blind taste tested 5 different pizzas and 4 kinds of root beer to divulge our favorites and see who knew their pizza brands.

AUGUST 2008 - Coming soon...Gladiator Obstacle Course!