All four kids were in the van with me. They were chattering excitedly, speculating on where we might be going. My announcement of a surprise had them all intrigued.
“Kangaroo Zoo!” shouted Gleek hopefully.
“Nope. Mom made Patch put on shoes. You don’t need shoes for Kangaroo Zoo.” Link answered.
“Not Kangaroo Zoo.” I confirmed.
We kept talking around the issue. I told them it was not a big surprise, because we needed daddy for there to be a big surprise. That meant that this surprise was either medium sized or small. Guesses were made for a local elementary school and the dinosaur museum.
“Nope!” I said cheerfully.
The kids subsided into meditative silence while they pondered their clues. After a few moments Patch spoke up.
“I know why we get a surprise.” He kicked his feet cheerfully. “Any time Mom has a day off from work, she likes to do nice things for us.”
There were murmured agreements from all the kids. Then Link spotted The Purple Turtle (a local restaurant) and they knew exactly where we were going.
“Discovery Park!” Link shouted with glee.
“Yup!” I confirmed.
All the kids bounced in their seats. They’ve been longing to go to Discovery park for months. In fact, every time we visit Discovery Park they declare their desire to live there. It is an amazing wooden playground with mazes, rocket ship, and a volcano as well as more standard playground equipment. We arrived to discover that the park was nigh empty. The weather was perfect. It makes me think that we should make park trips on Thursday afternoons more often, because apparently the rest of the world was too busy doing other things.
When it was time to leave, I smugly announced that there was a second part to the surprise. I had to tell Link and Gleek what it was in order to get them to agree to leave. We stopped at Hogi Yogi for sandwiches and ice cream. The kids were all marvelously well behaved sitting there inside the store. They also loved the sandwiches. I did too. But even more than the sandwiches, I loved watching them and listening as they talked to each other and me. I loved being away from my house, and my computer, and my work so that I could really see the kids. It was a good outing.