Friendship Knows No Country

A little over a year ago, Gracie’s bestest little buddy in her daycare class moved back to Italy.  Her dad was here working for two years, but when his contract was up, they packed their family and sadly headed back to Rome.  Gracie was heartbroken.  We tried doing a few FaceTime sessions with the girls, but it was hard.  Sara was having a tough time adjusting to the language in Rome and Gracie was really missing her friend, so we stopped those.  But still, Sara’s mom and I stayed in touch and both of our girls continued to talk about the other, even a year later.

Thankfully, Sara and her family are here in Orlando on vacation for two weeks and so the girls have had a chance to get together again.  They picked right back up where they left off, and it has been absolutely adorable to watch.  These pictures are from last weekend when we met them at the splash park.  They were a little shy for the first five minutes, just giggling and hiding behind their moms.  But before we knew it, they were off and running again like no time had gone by at all!

(Brothers… Ugh…)

Then, this weekend, we threw them a little “Welcome home” party at our house. We invited all of the girls’ friends from preschool. It was nice because it was also the first weekend after everyone began kindergarten, so we got to hear about each other’s classes and teachers.

It was such a fun afternoon with some of our favorite families. I was so glad to see the kids happy and to hear that everyone had good first weeks of school. After so much new that first week, I think it was nice for them to revisit their old familiars for a little while.

Also, how stinking cute is Gracie wearing her goggles while she plays soccer?

School has started and there are so many exciting new things to look forward to. I can’t wait to see how this year unfolds for our family and friends. But it’s pretty great to look at where we are right now and soak up this time. Babies grow, friends change, and time flies. So I’ll take all the happy, late summer afternoons I can get.