Our Play Group

Every Friday we get together with Jackson's (aptly-named) Friday Play Group. Waaaay back in 2009, I was looking for a way to meet some new people and found a Mommy Meetup Group online. I went to my first meetup, and I remember being so embarrassed that my baby (10 months old at this point) was so active and getting into things, while almost all the other babies were lying or sitting so nicely on their blankets. I was so grateful for the other older baby who was also very active, a little boy named David, whose Mom seemed really nice too.

Over the next couple months, we continued going to play dates, and saw David (who we found out was called "Davey" by his mom) pretty often, and started to meet some other great moms and kids. The only problem was that there was no consistency. The demand for play groups was too big and the number of people willing to host was just too small. Also, people who host when it was convenient for them, which could be any time during the week and changed all the time. In December, we were invited to Davey's first birthday party and I started talking to some of the other moms (who I had gotten to know in the past few months) about the possibility of setting up a standing playdate with the same people every Friday. I wanted to have a chance to get to know some friends (rather than acquaintances) for both Jackson and me. We put together a list of 9 moms we thought would be interested, and I sent out an email to see who might be interested. Everyone responded that they wanted to participate. I was over the moon.

Over the next year, our group settled a little bit. One mom went back to work, another moved away to be closer to her family. Luckily, we had some great additions as well. We picked up another mom after she came to meet us for Happy Hour (gotta have play time for the mommies too!), and two more moms whose sisters were already in our playgroup. During this time, our babies became toddlers, right before our eyes!

Now, our play group is in our second year of playing together and the kids have become so close and our activities extend way past our individual houses. We go to lots of parks, story time at the library, Chuck E Cheese, bounce houses, and lots of other day trips. Then of course, we have Mommies' Nights Out, and host showers for each other. It is so great that we have found a support system and group of friends for our little ones.

So that is our play group. Yesterday was our turn to host and in the afternoon we played with Jackson's friend Addison for a few hours while her mom went to a meeting. I have some great pictures that I will post later. They are pretty cute.