Up to my eyeballs in fun.

Chris was off on a well-deserved mountain biking break and it was the kids and I this morning convened around the dining room table, constructing the best 2009 has to offer in play-doh creations. It was arts and crafts craziness I tell you. We made play-doh bugs and play-dog monsters and babies and baby monsters. We also danced and sung and brought out the guitars. We played dress-up and we drew and we got dressed and went over to a friend's for a play date, where even more fun was had.

So much more that Reese said to me in the car going home:

"Sophia's house is WAY more fun than our house."

That's when I took off my fun hat and crumpled to the ground in defeat.

No, just inside. Actually I explained that everybody else's house always seems more fun than ours because it's new and different and blah blah blah.

But, Reese is right, Sophia's house is more fun than ours. At Sophia's house you get to write on the walls of her room in crayon and there's Christmas lights strung up beautifully and persimmons to eat and hard boiled eggs you get to throw on the ground outside and peel and then put in the compost heap when you're done.

Sophia's house is MORE fun. I had a great time myself.

And the truth is, maybe I'm just not that fun.

Lord, I try. Really I do. I color and draw and make believe and read a million stories and make up lots of them too. I try to not be rigid and a no fun ninny. I try to be game. I try to be the kind of mom I would want: a FUN mom. In a fun house.

But at Sophia's you can draw on the walls. With crayon. And there's this really great playroom out back and a beautiful deck you can sit on outside and eat persimmons that grow on THEIR OWN TREE.

Maybe Sophia's parents, who I also adore, will adopt me. Then we can all live in a fun house.

Probably not.

Anyway, it was a great day. Maybe I'll let the kids draw on a wall or paint the laundry room or tie dye their coats after nap. I'm inspired now. I may never be the FUN queen, but darn it if I'm not going to try.