My village

Hillary Clinton once said "it takes a village to raise a child." I am so thankful for my village. We have very wonderful family, but sometimes they're just not enough. Curling Man and I went to New York City for 5 days. We left the night before Halloween. That means we were not here to orchestrate trick-or-treating. Hockey Girl was invited to a party that included a sleep-over, but she had to get there. Curling Man's parents came to take care of the kids, but they're not familiar with Duluth so asking them to drive the kids everywhere was complicated by needing to leave very specific driections. So, I relied on the 1st Villager to pick up Hockey Girl to take her to the party. Party Girl's Mom then said that she would keep Hockey Girl and bring her to soccer try-outs since Party Girl was going there the next day anyway - Villager #2. Halloween night All-other-sports Boy went to a friend's house to go trick-or-treating and friend's parents agreed to bring him home so the in-laws wouldn't have to worry about what time t-or-ting ended - Villager #3. Saturday night and Sunday a.m. Hockey Girl had hockey practice. Coach's wife (Villager #4) agreed to bring her to and from practice (and would have even taken her overnight had we not said she really should stay at home since she'd had a sleep-over the night before). Sunday night AOS Boy had basketball practice and Villager #5 picked him and brought him to/from that practice. Monday my kids went, as they always do an Mondays and Wednesdays, to VIllager #6's house. She takes them to Hebrew School all year long. Tuesday the ILs headed home before school let out. My kids went to Villager #4s house after school. Eventhough she had already voted and her kids had already voted, she took my kids to the polls so they could cast their votes for Kids Vote. Villager #5 again brought AOS Boy to/from basketball practice that night. Villager #7 never actually had to help, but she had been lined up to bring Hockey Girl to soccer and AOS Boy to play auditions (which he didn't end up doing). We are SO incredibly lucky to have all of these wonderful people in our lives and even more importantly in our kids' lives. They regularly are surrounded by people who value them, who assist them and who care for them. So very lucky they are! We hope that these people know we are happily a part of their village as well.