Yesterday I had the girls of Cara's class over for a 2 hour playdate.
I went to school to pick them all up and met them all grinning and giggling. They were all so excited. The teacher knew all about the playdate and had the girls all line up sitting on the seat wall for me. I am sure the boys were a little bummed that they weren't invited, I did feel bad about that but that would be an impossibility. I gave them a couple of rules about walking home like no running ahead and staying on the sidewalk. Then I told them to grab a walking partner and they grabbed hands in groups of 3 which I thought was perfect since there are 9 girls all together. We were on our way.
They happily talked the whole walk home and helped each other carry the heavier backpacks. It was a beautiful day and I knew that this was going to be a great day for all.
We got home and had a plastic egg hunt. Inside the eggs were pieces of paper that had the names of 3 toppings for decorating a cupcake. Each kid got to find 2 eggs......so 6 toppings altogether. Cami, Charlie and Mannie had hid the eggs and then went off to lunch and the pool. We had a lot of trouble finding the last 3 eggs and of course I couldn't give any hints since I had no idea where they were. We finally found them.
Then they came over to the "Candy Shop" to get their toppings. They lined up and one at a time read their notes and put on whatever their note said. Example......3 jelly beans, 1 scoop of sprinkles, 1 strawberry. Then they moved over the next station to ice their cupcake and decorate it. It went very well and took a fair amount of time which was good since I didn't know if by the end of 2 hours they would be bored.
After that, they ate their cupcakes on blankets in the backyard. Then it was playtime. I set up tons of stuff to keep them busy out there. They were all dying to go upstairs into Cara's room but I wanted them to play outside for as long as possible. They hula hooped, blew bubbles, made playdough stuff, beaded bracelets and necklaces, drew pictures and went on the swings.
I sat there on my swing with a magazine in my hand but couldn't read because I was too interested in watching the dynamics of the girls. I wanted to see how Cara interacts with the girls. They all get along really well.
With 15 minutes left to go, I let them all go in the house and up to Cara's room. Then the mommy's came and the house still looked intact.
The kids thought it surely had not been 2 hours already.
A couple of girls stayed a little later due to conflicting schedules so Cara also got to play with a small group. She really enjoyed that too.
I had a "girls" playdate back in November which was fun as well. It was neat to see the differences in the dynamics from the beginning of the year. I can tell everyone has grown up a lot. This playdate seemed to have more going on which was great. The egg hunt/cupcake decorating was the only thing that I was really involved with so the girls were left alone to just do whatever they wanted.
After November's playdate I said to myself I need to have more playdates and here I am at the end of March having the second one. I really want to make more of an attempt from here on out to really plan out these get togethers since they are lots of fun for the kids and fairly simple. I would like to plan some smaller group ones as well since I think Cara got more out of that as far as one on one time.
Anyway, I always struggle with this planning thing since I don't know the Mom's very well. I really have to put myself out there which I am not always comfortable doing.
Overall an awesome day.
Today my goal is to get Cam and Charlie off to school and really get some stuff done for this birthday weekend. I also need to get things lined up for our trip.
Hope you have a great day. 
I have never seen Daisy or Donald at either Disneyland or DisneyWorld....I always wondered why. Well, Daisy is hiding out at the Paradise Pier Hotel!!
