kiddos

Monday night we ate spaghetti, no cutting of noodles necessary. These kids know how it's done.

In between slurps of saucy, basil garnished noodles, we joked about ninjas, Star Wars and puppies.

Little Ben had three helpings -- growing boy. Lily opted to, "save her appetite for YogurtLand." Wise choice.

Clamoring out the door, Zach yelled, "Shotgun!" The other three raced behind him out to my Vue.

I love watching them wait anxiously to saddle up into my car, especially since it's significantly smaller than their mother's Suburban. Finally unlocking the door, they were able to pile in, filling all 4 passenger seats.

Arriving at YogurtLand I gave the strict, "Go easy on the serving size" warning and they ran to the various flavor dispensing stations, swirling sweets into cups.

Sitting outside at the table, elder Josiah shared my chair and was leaning on me when I exclaimed, "Gosh! I just wish parks were open at night. I wanna go play." The kids' eyes widened and Josiah's boney elbow jabbed me in the rib as he swung around, staring at me almost nose-to-nose, and said, "We can go to the wood fort!" Josiah looked at Zach. Zach looked at Lily. Lily called for Ben, who was playing on the small rocks and destroying the landscaping, "Hey! Amber said we can go to the park, let's go!"

We repeated our earlier piling into my vehicle and I made my way to the vaguely described park. I had no idea where we were going.

From the back seat, Josiah told me where it was. I had a hunch.

Pulling into a dark parking lot with a buzzing light and fields lit up for lacrosse and adult soccer games, I could see it. The massive wooden fort structure looming in the dark. It looked like a castle! (Apparently it's called Lake Island Park - off Denning.)

Ignoring the sign reading, "Park closes at dark," we each targeted various parts of the structure and began our play. First it was flashlight tag, then it became hide-and-go-seek.

An hour and a half later, we were sweating and it was 30-minutes past bedtime. I didn't care. We'd had an absolute blast.

We ended the evening by singing to Max the dog for his 4th birthday... and giving him a nice rub-down-loving before tucking in bed for prayers.

Love them.