Quite possibly the wildest play date ever

We have some friends on the mountain with whom we've been trying to have a play date for  about four months now.  Their oldest two boys are each about six months older than my guys, and the oldest boys are buddies, while the younger two enjoy each other as much as barely three year olds do.  The boys from the other family are cut from different cloth than my boys.  As their mom once put it "every thing you think of as being 'boy,' well my boys got extra of all of it." They are beyond "all boy" they are "extra boy."  I thought I understood what she meant, but when we finally had our play date today, I was still surprised at the speed, rambunctiousness, impulsivity, and sheer dirtiness of the whole experience. We all had fun, but it was wild and exhausting fun.  Our neighbor and LO's regular play buddy also joined us, so there were my two low-key boys, our low key neighbor and two tasmanian devils.  Well, let me tell you, the energy and excitement of those devils was contagious!

After about 20 minutes inside, we got the boys out riding bikes.  That lasted about 10 minutes before they moved on to sword fighting and stick wielding, then some hill rolling and wrestling, followed by super hero play.  LO and our neighbor B often play in the center of our cul-de-sac, so I kept encouraging LO to show his other friends where they usually play.  Finally they ran off with their capes and headed straight to the only part of the cul-de-sac I had hoped they'd avoid...the mud.  Generally LO doesn't gravitate to that, but I guess you get five boys together and the collective "boy" does.  The other mom and I stood in our skirts at the edge of the road and watched as our boys (hers in new shoes, only one of mine in play clothes, the other in school clothes) descended into the mud pit.  We shrugged as the shoes sank down into the mud, then bare muddy feet came out.  We cringed a little when one, then another fell down into the muck and mire.  We began to smell the nasty muddiness as our boys, thrilled with their suddenly black extremities, took off their shirts and brought them to us (too late to be helpful, but damage control nonetheless.)  We were not surprised when red and blond hair turned black, and offered sips of water to rinse out mouths splashed as a baseball bat was used to smack the mud bath.

 

Eventually the warning call was given, and the boys were called up from the pit.  They paused (sort of) long enough to display the fruits of their labor.

Then my friend asked if we could just hose them down.  Sounded like a perfect plan to me.  That's when the second fun half of the play date started.  We don't have pictures because, well, they would have been inappropriate.  We had four naked boys running through the hose sprayer in our driveway.  Let me tell you, the water was cold, the pressure was high, and they were good sports, but that mud was tenacious! We probably spent a good 20 minutes trying to get them clean enough to ride home in their birthday suits.  At one point one was peeing in the driveway, the others were running around shaking what they'd been given.  When it was time to load their bikes back in the car, the eldest rode his bareback, while his little brother pushed his scooter in the nude.  There was much giggling and horsing around, and then, suddenly, they were loaded up and it was all over but the laundry and the toy retrieval.  

Phew, what a play date!  We hope they'll be back over sooner than 4 months, but we'll need to specify that we won't remove our clothes or roll in the mud every time we play.