I live in this really great neighborhood about 16 miles west of salt lake city and I love the back street that our house is tucked away on. I also love our neighbors. We don't hang out all the time and pry into each others lives, but we do watch out for each other. When people are gone, without even being asked, pretty much everyone around during that time will take a look at the home and make sure nothing unusual is happening. If we notice things are off, we don't hesitate to call and see if the family is alright.
We watch. We serve. We care. It's kind of like an unofficial motto in the area.
Which I happen to like.
There is this one family that lives across the street from us. These neighbors have some pretty wonderful kids. They're bright. They're fun. They read. They play. They write. They read. They're awesome with a capital "A"... for real.
Last week the kids knocked on the door and when I opened it I was surprised to find a massive, cardboard Yoda standing on my front porch. He was green with the cutest ears. It didn't take long for one of the little ones to pop their head out from behind Yoda with a big grin on their face. Soon we were all standing there, and shortly thereafter the kids and Yoda were walking through the house on their way to the backyard to find the their father. It was a great.
A couple of days later they were back. This time with the original paper doll Yoda they had made that had inspired their creation into the life size figure. Seriously. I love these kids. I do. Would die for them if I had to. That is how wonderfully special they are to me.
Their parents are pretty wonderful, too. They encourage their children to PLAY. Really play. When they're bored, the parents tell them to use their imaginations... and they do. Last year they wrote plays during the summer and then took tickets around to the neighbors. Mom and Dad might not have known they were doing a performance that night, but the kids and the neighbors did. And it was awesome! They built the stage out of, you guessed it... cardboard. They made some puppets. Wrote some scripts. Then put on a performance.
Well, the long dreaded winter is finally over, and the sun is out and full of all the things everyone in the neighborhood is looking forward to.
When will the first play be?
When will the first backyard movie night for the neighborhood be across the street?
When will the kids start giving away tickets to another performance?
When? When? When?
Richard and I sit with this family on Sundays at church, and today one of the children passed Richard a note.
It was this...
This is Noah on the Ark announcing to the animals that he's loading them alphabetically. While the ants are "whoo-hooing" and the zebra's are saying, "darn", I'm saying...
"Totally cool! I can't wait for summer to begin!"
