Fun with friends, some of whom are boys

Over the last month or so, our little quiet street has come alive with children playing after school. There's Cora, Ave and Johnny, two neighbor boys on the other side of Genia's house, and two boys who are at their 

grandparents' house every day, next door to us.

In the above photo, we had Alexyss and Marley over to play, and all the kids are enjoying frozen yogurt tubes for dessert.

Genia and I have been having picnic lunches at the park after we pick up our kindergartners. The weather has been perfect.

These two! They are such good friends. We had Owen over for dinner the other night on his own, when Genia took Cora and her her older two to a concert by John's high school jazz band students. Owen was a hoot. He's growing up so much, and really had us laughing.

When we were leaving the park, it was drizzling so Cora gave Johnny a leaf hat to block the rain. She was quite serious about this, and Johnny's a good sport.

On a recent Saturday, we took a picnic lunch to Placerita Canyon for a little hike/walk. Hiking won't happen without a back carrier for Violet, who tends to meander at a snail's pace.

It was very pretty, with fall colors and local wildlife (woodpeckers, scrub jays and chipmunks).






In this photo, you can see the sand village the girls made with Stace, with some help from a couple of other neighbor boys.

One of those boys happened to be the one Cora likes, from her class. Let's call him Joey - the name is changed to protect the youngster.
On Thursday, Cora delivered some news that stunned her parents: She and Joey played together all through recess, and they were holding hands. Normally the kindergartners and first-graders have separate recess times, but on Thursday Cora's whole class went out at one time, giving Cora and Joey playtime together.

Cora told me that all the kids saw them, and she and the young boy didn't mind that at all, even though one of the girls said it "looked like they were getting married."
(This is one of the levels of weirdness for me; boys never liked me in school, and if I actually liked a boy, I'd have been horrified if anyone found out.)

I asked Cora if they were allowed to hold hands at school, and her answer was: "Yeah! We can do everything. Except the monkey bars, because a boy broke his leg."
She didn't want me to tell Stacey about the hand-holding, and at dinner, she told Stace she played with Joey during recess, but then stopped. "Mom, don't tell Daddy the rest!" After Stace protested, Cora said, "I'm not telling you what else I did with Joey!'
After that statement, simple hand-holding came as something of a relief (though still shocking to poor Stace, who needed some time on his own after dinner).

I know parents are never ready for their children to grow up, but really, I never expected Cora to start liking boys at age 5. And he likes her too! We have told Cora she is way too young to kiss boys or think of the word "boyfriend." Not sure what to tell her about hand-holding. Hmmmm...