Clare and Paul are out in San Diego for a family vacation, so the kids and I spent Monday with Clare and her crew down on Coronado Island! Natalie and Chris came down for the afternoon, too. Back in college, Clare and Leah and I had this grand plan of how we were going to live in the same town, on the same street, and our kids would all be friends, running in and out of each other’s houses. Leah and I got a tiny taste of it living only an hour apart this fall, but the Cullen and Muller kids had never even met until this week. As expected, they were instafriends. Susie and Mary started playing the moment they saw each other and didn’t even pause for introductions for several minutes. Can we say future Mauck roommates?
Kindred spirits. Does this surprise anyone?
Clare had apparently regaled her girls with tales of my braiding prowess, so of course everyone needed to have a matching braid for a pajamas photo shoot. Not up to the standards of our infamous (to our children) Backstreet Boys, American Girl, Point of Grace, Workin’ on the Railroad, Sweaters-and-Pigtails, or Gigantic Lollypop photo shoots, but not everyone can be as cool as we were at age 19.
Not every college sophomore is cool enough to recreate an American Girl outfit and go have a photo shoot somewhere in public. Sixteen years later, this picture still makes me really, really happy.
And who knows how many more kiddos will be on the couch by the next time we meet up?
These pictures made me smile. Wish I could have been there!