Kites and Bubbles

Mondays....ugh.....my least favorite day of the week. Always too busy, even when nothing is added. This afternoon found us in one of those wonderful added end of the year activities that seem to be becoming a daily habit at the elementary school: it was Kites and Bubbles day, and "All are welcome to attend". Translation, "if you love your son/daughter in any way at all, you will most certainly want to be here for them as they run around with their friends ignoring you but at least happy that they are not one of the other kids (who quite frankly probably do not even notice)whose parents obviously do not care enough to take one hour out of their work day at the end of the school year for what will be the first time out of 18 in these last few weeks to come." Never mind that it is cold, is threatening rain, I have a baby with pneumonia or something, plus two others for a total of 3 little kids in tow during nap time, none of which can handle flying a kite, I can't find any of the 8 bottles of bubbles I KNOW we have around here somewhere.......we still all piled into the truck with one rainbow colored kite and a large nylon parachute with "great" expectations for the afternoon.

OK.....I'll admit, it was fun. The kids did not care that the kites were getting too heavy with raindrops to remain airborne, they were just happy to have an excuse to run. It was just fine that we arrived bubbleless, because there was an automatic blower providing plenty of large bubbles for everyone to pop. The parachute provided my little ones with lots of creative ideas from "giant kite" to "parachute monster". And the sick baby was happy to be outside, like always, and was even happier to be given empty bubble containers to play with. The hour swiftly went by, and before we knew it, we were headed back up to the school to collect backpacks and papers. Jonny has school patrol this week, so we searched for him outside to say "hello", then waited in the truck for his shift to end, the kids happily snacking on a box of Girl Scout cookies they found under one of the seats.

All the fresh air must have gotten the best of my kids, because Laura & Tubby fell asleep before we made it home. They ended up riding out to the farm with Melissa and I, still asleep. In fact, before we arrived at our destination, Melissa fell asleep also! That is the kind of dreary day it was, I guess. Since we were a bit early for her riding lesson, I let her sleep for about 10 minutes before bringing her inside......she was a bit groggy upon awakening, but managed her horse just fine after a few minutes of waking up. Laura continued sleeping throughout the lesson, leaving me to merely peer through the arena window to watch my daughter ride while running through the rain every 5 minutes to check on my sleeping littler daughter in the truck. Tubby awoke halfway through the lesson, thrilled to play with the cat and talk to all the horses. This little guy loves animals!

After Melissa's lesson, we drove straight home to pick up the boys and head over to Jonny's end of year Cub Scout BBQ that had started 45 minutes prior. Though I usually dread these events, all of the kids had a great time and everyone ate a lot...even my very picky girls! (Oh yeah, Laura finally woke up after a 2-1/2 hour nap!) Even though we were inside the shelter building because of the recent rain, the bonfire remained stoked outside, and its aroma wafted into our building, creating that relaxing campfire atmosphere.

We were all graced by two Native American dancers that dressed from head to foot in tribal gear, and danced a few authentic dances to tribal music. The feathers and colors were outstanding, the movements in all that garb was impressive to say the least, and the music interesting....perhaps a bit surprising to my unsuspecting little ones in the front row. When asked for volunteers to come up to learn a dance, Melissa quickly raised her hand. Standing in the back with my noisy baby, I watched as a very nervous Crispy grabbed her arm and pulled it back down. She pulled it from his grasp and raised it again, this time being noticed before he could "save" her (what he thought he was doing). It came as no surprise that Jonny also volunteered to be up in front. The kids did great, doing their best to follow simple, but FAST dancing routines to unusual music. Melissa was THRILLED at her bravery and accomplishment.....she was absolutely beaming. Tubby did his own butt dancing to the beat and sang along with the Native American sounds. A little something for everyone.

For a Monday, this wasn't so bad after all.