I think we're a sitcom waiting to happen. I've mentioned that we have an awesome back yard. The kids love it. Did I tell you that there is a hole in the fence to the neighbors on our west? It's their fence, not ours so I'm going to have to come up with a nice way to tell them to fix it. Anyway, they have 4 kids. The oldest is 19. The rest are six. Triplets. Girl triplets. The day we moved in they kept coming through the fence to ask if our kids could play. The kids were being watched by some friends that day so they weren't around. I told them to come back at 3pm. They came back. They played. It was fun. I told them it was time for them to go home. I also told them that our kids don't play on Sunday so they shouldn't come over the next day (plus, it was Easter). My sister was watching the kids in the morning so we could go to Stake Conference and actually pay attention. When we got home, I saw one of the triplets at the sliding glass door. My sister also said that they had come over earlier and wanted to play. I had to nip this in the bud. I went to see their mom.
Their mom is great. She apologized and told me that they aren't supposed to go through that hole in the fence at all! They weren't allowed when the other people lived here and they aren't now. They haven't done it since. Now they come to the front door and ask me nicely if they can play in the backyard with my kids and I'm allowed to tell them to buzz off if I want. I also found out that they aren't supposed to play on Saturday (they're Jewish...speaking of which, I told them that we're Mormons and think of the jokes that could be made about our street!).
There is another kid that lives a couple of houses down. He's about 12. He keeps coming over asking for jobs to do so he can earn money. I wouldn't mind if he came once a day. Nope. He knocks on the door about 4-5 times a day. It's majorly annoying and I told him to cut it out. Caleb tries to run out into the street any time I open the door and Eva tries to tumble down the stairs anytime I leave her to her own devices. I hope he stops soon. I don't feel like paying him to sweep my driveway although I am tempted to give him 25 cents a day to not knock on my door!
The good news? Caleb and Eva love playing with these kids. It really has been a blessing having some other kids around. They love running outside and messing around with them. It's exactly what I envisioned having kids would be like---them playing with the neighbor kids in the backyard eating popsicles. Now if only I could keep them from teaching Caleb how to wrestle even better than he does now...
Saturday, April 29, 2006
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We totally have a neighbor kid like that. He's about 15 now, but ever since we moved in 2.5 years ago he's been asking for jobs. He's not real good with boundaries either so he'll come up to Bruce and touch him and try to pick him up or something. Or at the pool last summer he would splash Bruce full on in the face. Bruce is terrified of him and there's no way in heckydoodledandy that I'd let him babysit my kids or spend any time cleaning my apartment.
ReplyDeleteHis sister used to set up a "store" in our courtyard to sell little candies and crap toys. Every time we came home she'd try to get us to buy her junk. Come on! If we had money to throw away on her crap we wouldn't be living in this apartment in the first place. Plus, we have enough crap of our own.
Catherine
That's one of the sad things about living out here. No neighbor kids. I guess there are kids at the trailer park at the top of the street, but they don't go to the same school as my kids and you can't just let your kids go wandering around the neighborhood looking for other kids to befriend like you once could. I would be annoyed by the job-hunting kid too.
ReplyDeleteChristy
ReplyDeleteThat sounds great and I hope we have kids in our new neighborhood. I am looking foward to the fence keeping claire in :) An idea for the fence get some Lattice and use zip ties fairly inexpensive and it will solve the problem you can tell the neighbors it is for the safety of Ava and then all will be well. We close on Friday with the new house still trying to sell our current home :( FYI I think the birthday party will be a Dinosaur Tea party to incorporate both Tim and Claire ...pretty funny huh!
I'm so glad for all of you that the kids have a good yard to play in and some friends too. Those triplets sound like a crack-up. Hey, how about some pictures of the back-yard going-on?
ReplyDeleteAs soon as it stops raining here and I can find the camera, Janet!
ReplyDelete