Perfect Pizza Farm

"Mom!!!!!" he yelled from atop the furthest play structure just south of the gravel road leading to the pizza farm.  "Mom!!!! I have a girlfriend!"  His face lit up with a giant grin.  The little girl's name was Ava and she was the first of many new friends that Sam made last night.

That was perhaps the last time he paid any attention to me for the rest of the evening.  He was off and running with a pack of older boys, playing hide-and-seek tag with 8-year-olds that were a full head taller than him, running up and down and up and down and up and down the stairs that led to the big hill, chasing other kids along the grass path that wrapped around the farm playground, stopping only occasionally to inhale a few strawberries or a slice of wood-fired pepperoni pizza.

Eva started the evening on the baby swing, loving that an adult was willing to push her for long stretches of time, but eventually she branched out and raced around the play house with all the big girls, crawling up the climbing wall and running up the big hill, slowed down only once by the need to pee in the grass.

As I sat in a chair and actually conversed with good friends, at one point laughing harder than I have in months, I remembered last year when I envied the parents of 3-year-olds, moms and dads who were sitting and laughing, not chasing their children.  And although Eva is not completely independent at the pizza farm yet, our family has definitely graduated to the next level.  It didn't hurt to be surrounded by great friends, good people who helped me keep an eye on my kids and made me laugh and appreciate how truly perfect the pizza farm can be.

***See past pizza farm pictures here.