I haven’t laughed so hard since Annie came to visit.

I hadn’t realized how much I NEEDED to laugh until after it was all over. And my house was dark and quiet and I washed dishes alone in my kitchen.

We sat around a table last night with other adults while 8 kids combined pounded up and down my stairs, climbed on the top of the kids’ playhouse, and tore through our back yard pulling each other in a wagon. One family lives near us, but we don’t see them often and the other family, we’ve just met and they’ve come all the way from Canada.

All day at the beach, to our seperate corners to clean up and shower and then back to my house for tacos and ice cream sundaes. And I haven’t laughed so hard.

Eight kids generally keep each other happy and don’t need a lot of direct supervision, as long as they have things to do. Sometimes more kids means less work because they play with each other. Unless they are destroying things, which they didn’t.

Share the Wii, please.
Be careful not to dump the toddler out of the wagon on the patio.
Girls, please don’t be mean to the little boys.

…was about the extent of the discipline needed last night. They played inside and outside until well after dark and they were all so good. Which allowed the adults and the oldest boys to sit around and play a game and laugh.

I needed adult laughter at the merits of Canadian sunscreen (Is anyone going to tell them it doesn’t work? They are all sunburned!!), turkey basters, farmer’s markets, and ancient temples being more majestic than the wilderness (thank you, Mr. No-Green Card).

I needed to get to know another mother who lives 1600 miles away and think about how much we’d be friends if we lived remotely close to each other.

I needed my girls to be enveloped in a larger group of kids, in a mini-community, and learn how to make the best use of short time spent with new friends.

I needed my home to burst at the seams with people and kids and friends and a whole lot of laughter. A busy, messy kitchen is much better than a quiet one.