Peep-quence

A few weeks ago most of The Fruit Bowl and our families gathered for a birthday party, which happens to be our speciality. If there's one thing my Peeps know how to do, it's throw a birthday bash. Normally, there are costume changes, parody songs and themed t-shirts involved but this party was a little different.

First of all, the party was a Sweet Sixteen party. As I'm sure you are all aware, each and every one of my Fruits passed that landmark long, long ago so obviously the party wasn't for us. It was, in fact, for Taylor. She's what you might call a Junior Fruit.

When the Fruit Bowl started unoffically forming way back when, Taylor was around 3 or 4 years old. I can still remember the first time I layed eyes on her. I had just met her parents in Sunday School for the first time and I was watching them load her into their truck after church. She had a sweet white dress on and a pretty bow in her hair. She was so stinkin' cute that I thought I might not mind having one of those myself. It would be 5 years before I did.

As I became friends with her mom and a few other girls at church, we started getting together for pool playdays. Then circumstances, tragedy and providence started bringing more women with children into the mix. Eventually we ended up with the 9 of us and all our offspring. Since Taylor was one of the oldest in the beginning, she's been a witness to most of the silly laughter and most of the weeping too. She's watched us rehearse our dance numbers, take our pyramid pictures and plan our next big weekend get-away. She's also watched us walk through some pretty dark valleys. As she got older, she even accompanied her Mom on a few of our Girl's Night Out excursions. All the while, we knew she was seeing us. But we didn't realize how closely she was watching us. Or what it meant to her to have a group of families be so close and rely on each other so much.

When her Mom asked her what kind of party she wanted, she requested a pool party with all of us and our kids just like the pool play days she's had all her life. She also asked if there might be a chance I'd write a song for her the way I do for all the grown-ups.

A sixteen year old girl wants to hang out with a bunch of old people and their kids for her sixteenth birthday party? You'd better believe she's getting a song! It was to the tune of Taylor Swift's "You Belong With Me". Here' a sample of the lyrics:

You're at the pool on your cellphone lookin' cool
You're texting all your friends about some boy at school
But we remember when you used to wear floaties.

You might be old enough to get a job and drive
And listen to the kind of music that we don't like
But we remember when you used to watch Barney

You'll have boyfriends, we'll be watchin'
We'll let you know that we really don't like them
They'll do you wrong just to wake up and find
You don't have just one mom, you really have nine!

Me & the girls performed it with everything we had. Big Nanny wore her best country music outfit and she & Cool Shelly T strummed guitars. It was a sight to behold. The choreography wasn't up to our usual standards but we made due. It was all thrown together pretty quickly and wasn't really my best effort, but Taylor (and her mom) loved it so that's all that mattered to me. (Once upon a time, there was a video on YouTube. I'm really hoping that's not the case anymore. )

As the party drew to a close, Andrea had one last request. For years she has wanted a picture of all our kids in age-order standing by The Ellis pool which has been the home of so many eventful playdays in the past. Even though The Davis family didn't make the party, we managed to get everybody else in line for the photo-op. So here are (almost) all of our Baby Peeps in perfect Peepquence:

I encourage you to click on the picture to get a closer look at all those cute faces. (I personally love how The Ocho managed to distance herself from the boys all around her.) Andrea (the oldest, a college sophmore, is holding the youngest, Cruz, who's now 10 weeks old). Next to her is the birthday girl, Taylor. From there we have everyone from Brianna to Jonas. Well, almost everyone. Taylor, Colby & Clay didn't make it. And my heart can't help but ache for the spaces that Isaac & Rebekah would fill. But I love this picture. I love everything it stands for.

These kids might not all grow up to be the closest of friends, but they are a part of each other's memories & life stories that will go with them forever. They all have a pretty awesome heritage in Christ and I can't wait to see what kind of adults they all turn out to be.

And Taylor is living proof that they're getting there faster than any of us can imagine.