PEN PALS.

True Story: In fifth grade, I got to pick out a prize from my teacher's prize box. Being the book worm that I was, I chose a book from some Pen Pals series. In the back of the book was a form to fill out to be matched up with a pen pal of my own. Of course I was all over that, and I was connected with a girl my age, Jen from New York. Fast forward twenty some years later, and we are still in touch. Our correspondence has shifted from snail mail and phone calls to sporadic emails and Christmas cards, but the fact of the matter is we were friends at ten, and we are still friends at thirty one.

Last summer, while on a family vacation up north, my girl met a little friend. They hit it off and were fast friends. Upon parting, the girls traded addresses in hopes of staying in touch, but it didn't happen. Orelia didn't forget that, and wished often for a pen pal. I thought long and hard of someone her age I could connect her with, someone who I knew would be into it just as much as she was. When it finally hit me, I knew it was a perfect match. I reached out to my blogging friend Alicia of Investing Love and she was in! It has been so fun over the last several months to watch a friendship develop, to see my girl check the mail anxiously most days, and to see her creativity and generosity when sending things to her pal.

Alicia and I have had a friendship of our own for awhile. We are a lot alike, and so are our girls. I think we really bonded when we were both pregnant, having Otto and Vera just two months apart. So you can imagine my excitement when she called me a few months back and said she would be in Minnesota in early June! It was the natural conclusion that we would meet up for a few days.

We packed so much into two short days (and one near-all-nighter), and it was the most fun ever! I keep thinking about all the things we didn't have time to share with them, and the things we ran out of time to talk about...so that just means we'll have to do it again! Orelia is already asking when we can fly to North Carolina :) She was so sad to see Sophia go.

During our meet up, we had Orelia's dance recital, a girls only lunch date to the American Girl Place, raced through IKEA throwing all kinds of goodies into our carts, went for a walk through town, ate frozen yogurt, had breakfast at the bakery, showed them our farm, and played and talked for hours.

The blogging world and social media can be interesting and weird sometimes, but all the while fantastic. I have had several opportunities to connect and meet amazing people that I wouldn't have otherwise. Now not only are Alicia and I blogging friends, and our girls pen pals, we are all real life friends now, and that's pretty awesome.