Bouncy Bounce

Today I took the kids to an indoor inflatable park.  (A big building with lots of inflatable slides, and bounce houses).
The kids had a ball.  Spike was climbing all over the place, with no fear.  I was amazed to see him head up the ladder for the biggest slide.  They claim this slide is 3 stories tall, and I can believe it.  He got to the top, but then wasn't so sure about coming down.  I couldn't go and get him, because I had Baby strapped on in a baby carrier.  So I send Guy up there after him.  Well when Spike was scared to go down the slide, he decided to slide down where the ladder is.  I found this hilarious, because the ladder is exactly like the slides (slope and length), it just has bumps along the middle to aid in climbing.  He just slid down the side of it, so as to not hit the bumps.  Silly boy.

I took some pictures but I am having trouble getting them onto my computer today, so I will have to add them later.

Being at this park reminded  me of when we lived in Washington.  At that point in time I just had 2 kids, and a bunch of other moms in my neighborhood would get out weekly and do play groups.  Sometimes we would meet at peoples houses, but we would also go to parks, playgrounds, the zoo one time, and other fun locations for kids.  Sometimes it would be places that were free, but other times it would be places that  cost a little bit.  The kids would run around and play, and us mom's would get a chance to talk and visit, while watching our kids.

Man, I miss that.  I have tried a few times here with varying levels of success to get a group like that together, but overall I think the women here are too busy.  This is kind of hard for me because I really miss the interaction with other moms.  I know everyone has different needs, but for me interaction is one of my needs, and it needs to be interaction with someone other than my 5 children.  The hubs often helps with this need, but he has had a bit more stuff on his plate lately, and it is hard to find time to talk.

Sometimes I have mistaken the lack of this need being met as a lack of friends.  But I don't really think that is the case anymore.  I have friends.   Just most of my friends are in a different stage in life than I am .

The friends who have children who are all school age or older don't exactly do the play group kind of thing anymore.  You might get your kids together for a play date, however the mom's don't usually sit around and visit while the kids play.  And my friends who have children who are all preschool and baby age, don't really have much for my older kids to do, if we were to come over.  And the few friends I have who have school age, and preschool age children, just seem to be really busy.  I have tried to put out a general invite to people on Facebook or such but that doesn't get any results.  I probably need to be more specific and contact certain people and say "Hey, lets get together."  But then I feel like I am being really needy and annoying.    That, and it doesn't seem like invitations are ever reversed, it seems like I am the only asking.  This makes me worry that people don't really want to do things with me, they are just to polite to say no.

I know I am a worrier, and probably most people would love it if I called them up, or stopped by.  But what if they don't.  What if while I am sitting there visiting with them they are silently thinking "Will she ever leave?  I've got things I've got to do...  She is so annoying, I wish she wouldn't come over, but I can't be rude and tell her that."


Any advice?  I have probably asked this before, sorry if I tend to drone on in the same topics repeatedly.