Future Babysitters

I know I was just giving one of the neighborhood kids a hard time in my last post, but truth be told I am kind of in love with our neighborhood kids.  We live across the street from a park and allll of the kids in the near vicinity between the approximate ages of 8-14 head to the park when school lets out.  Some times there are little groups that stick together doing there own thing, but more often than not there is a large group of all grades and genders playing in a game of soccer or football together.  Its kind of remarkable in my opinion.  I never remember a group of kids, regardless of age and popularity, able to come together and "hang out".  The boys and I are at the park almost every afternoon the weather allows us.  So, I've kind of gotten to know these kids, on a very superficial, playground sort of level.  Yes, sometimes they act immature and say things that make me cringe, but for the most part these kids are pretty rad.  That's a cool word still right??  Most days, I am the only parent at the park.  Scary.  And at times I kind of feel like a teacher on recess duty.  
For the majority of the past year, the boys and I have kind of stuck to our own thing.  Our own game of soccer or football or chase or playing on the slide.  But over the last few months as Blake has continued to get older, he has started totally idolizing the big kids.  He longs to be bigger and wants nothing more than to play with them.  For awhile, the kids ignored him and it kind of broke my heart.  I would have to convince Blake to leave the big kids alone and play with his mommy.  How boring, right?  Well, a few weeks ago something happened.  A few of the big kids let Blake play with them and then once the other kids saw this they wanted to play with him too.  And then they fell head over heels in love with Brady.  Seriously.  They can't stop saying how cute he is while we're playing and they fight over who can give him high fives and hugs.  
The big kids have grown to love my boys and when we show up at the park they play with them the entire time we are there.  I've lost my playmates.  It makes me a little sad, but at the same time, I love watching these older kids be so sweet and accepting of my boys and see the smiles on the boys' faces as they are being one of the big kids for a bit.  And maybe in a few years I'll finally have some babysitters besides my parents.  Score!
And to end my rant, a random adorable picture of my little guy wearing a pajama top, diaper and one snow boot.  He's so silly!