It was a good day today! The sun shone, the birds sang, the autumn carpet of golden reds through brown was dry and knee deep to my five year old daughter.
It was also payday! My first proper payday since I started working two jobs.
Anyway, we decided, ok I decided, we were going to walk the 20 minutes into our town/village/shopping parade and were going to have lunch in the local cafe. Did I say lunch…? I had a breakfast, fried and yummy! The rest of our order consisted of:
Ham, egg and chips
Cheese burger and chips
House burger and chips (this came with bacon, cheese, mushrooms and onions)
Chicken curry and rice
We ate and chatted, totally enjoying each others company. The youngest two worked together and cleared our table, taking our dirty plates back to the counter. The staff were impressed, well they looked impressed and said thank you. Two children felt very proud and happy with themselves.
We spent an hour in the park after. Son 3, who is seven, but socially and emotionally a lot younger, actually managed to share/take turns without being prompted! I could have cried! He is learning, slowly, how to share although still has trouble doing it spontaneously. It’s difficult sometimes because he is very bright, top of his class bright, but struggles with empathy and socialising and sharing.
We walked home, through a river of leaves, rustling, shushing, crunching and crackling. First the kids started shuffling through the leaves, then their feet started coming higher and higher. Then, full kicks, leaves raining down on everyone, and shrieks of laughter “You missed me” and “Got you” so much fun was had by everyone – including yesterday’s grumpy teen, and the “enthusiasm” of son 1 yesterday was genuine today.
No thoughts about today, other than we all loved it. Something so simple, but so much fun. Shame it had to end with me going to work though, but that’s not for this post!
Leaves, laughing, and one very happy and tired family. Perfect