Young love

Spring seems to be taking its sweet time in getting here this year, but this week we are finally seeing several consecutive days of milder weather and last weekend was actually really nice. Sunny, warm, and definitely barbecue-worthy, so we had our friends Chris and Alissa and their boys Jack and Cole over to inaugurate our grill. We all had a blast spending time together and watching our kids play amazingly well. Gabriel has been smitten with their son, Jack, ever since we started hosting our church small group in our home and Jack comes over every other week to spend a couple hours in our basement playing all the boy games Gabriel can dream up. I'm not sure if Gabe's affection for Jack is due to the fact that Jack is the first boy close in age that Gabriel really got to know since we moved here, or if Jack truly is a kindred spirit. In any case, it was great to watch the boys running and tackling each other and wrestling like only little boys can. I can only hope we don't have any love triangles starting up here though. While Gabe is intent on claiming Jack as his newest BFF (Gabe has been known more than once to refuse to say goodbye to Jack when he leaves, but to reason, "Even if I don't say goodbye to him, I can still love him."), Jack seemed to be paying an awful lot of attention to a sweet young thing named Abigail. This pretty little princess giggled and teased and batted her eyelashes all through a tasty supper of hot dogs and watermelon, and Jack drank it all in. After dinner we all went on a walk around the neighborhood to enjoy the evening and let the food settle. I kid you not, Abigail received her first marriage proposal from young Jack, who, poor thing, did not get a straight answer, but when he then asked Abby if he could ride her bike she promptly quipped "No!" and pedaled away. Ah, to be young and in love. Methinks this truly marks the beginning of spring!