Spring Days - Park and Farm Adventures

We have had some gorgeous weather in Kansas City lately, and the kids have taken full advantage of it.  We arrived at our favorite hidden gem of a park recently, and I spied some tiny tots on the play equipment.  I said to Henry, "Now, you can't run around like a bull in a china cabinet, Son.  There are little kids here."  We had a lot of fun.  As we left hours later, Henry said, "See!  I told you I wasn't a buffalo in a cage in China!!"  The big girls and I got a big laugh out of that, and Henry got a lesson in word expressions.  We spent another morning at the same park with two families of friends, and the girls and I got to hold baby Evelyn.  Olivia upstaged me by getting the sweet baby to fall asleep in HER arms.  The sunshine felt amazing, and the temperature was perfect.  The children played for hours.

Yesterday we spent the day at a friend's family farm where eleven children and three moms got to kayak, canoe, hike, and fish.  It was a very pretty day, but quite windy.  During lunch we heard a loud bang, and it was discoverd that the 4'+ wide door to the storage area under the deck had slammed shut, bending the iron bar to jam the door stuck.  The moms were trying to figure out how to get the enormous door open when we had very little space to work in the area near the latch.  I suggested we remove the door from its hinges.  Tools were obtained, and we set about banging hinge pins and loosening bolts that obstructed the pin removal.  The door was HEAVY, so we used 2x4s as levers to position the door as needed.  Three of us were at work, and it was like any unexpected predicament...nothing went smoothly with the fix.  At one point during all of this, a young boy started crying loudly.  His mother was stuck inside the shed with just her sad face peeking out to the boy who needed a hug.  Next, a boy appeared with a triple fish hook stuck in the top of his shoe and laces.  As the mother, who shall remain nameless, struggled with a giant door and stuck pin hinges, he announced matter-of-factly that he had also peed himself in the course of his fishing adventure.  Mothers stifled their laughter.  Moments later children on the deck started yelling that they had caught a big catfish.  Of course, the hook was huge and stuck in the fish's mouth and cheek.  I ran down to the dock with pliers and decided there was no way I was going to mess with that gross fish.  I suggested Evelyn take charge, and she tried.  Soon, all of the kids surrounded that poor fish.  Nobody could dislodge the hook.  Finally, a 12-year-old girl sent the newly lip pierced fish on his way after cutting the fishing line.  One of the kids asked if leaving a hook in a fish would hurt, and we commented on how lucky we are that fish can't scream in pain.  During this a little boy approached me asking for help removing burrs from his shorts too.  We moms laughed and laughed at the string of events that were all crammed into the minutes that we had to deal with the three woman shed door job.  We fixed the door's latch and rehung it good as new, and no moms or children were crushed in the process.  Success!

Overall, everybody had a really fun day.  Vivian wore her cowgirl boots.  Henry found all of the mud that the farm had to offer and felt very accomplished after his first solo kayak experience.  He cast with the fishing pole without lodging a hook in the head or eye of anyone else.  Olivia and Evelyn had fun with several friends.  We returned home smelling like the great outdoors and thankful for hot showers and no ticks.