Crabby Goes To The Park

I took the boys to the park today. I suggested it because the weather was beautiful and I felt like doing something nice for my kids. The ones I adore. I'm not in the mood to go to the park very often, but I couldn't think of any reasons why today wouldn't be the perfect day to go. So we went. And we took a friend. And three light sabres. Right when we pulled up to the park we saw five other little boys with light sabres. Max and Hayden had a pow-wow with their friend in the back seat to see which of them was going to go ask the boys to play. They wanted to play, but were rather shy about going up to ask. Hayden lost the round of "rock, paper, scissors", so it was up to him to forge a friendship with the new boys. I pretended to be busy setting up the stroller, but really I was craning my neck to hear his approach.

"Dude. Wanna play Star Wars??" (They haven't seen the movies, but they love it anyway.)

"Dude! I'm in!" Instant buddies.

Ahhh. The universal language of light sabres.

My only rule at the park was that they had to, had to, absolutely had to stay out of the creek. This should not have been any problem considering there were fields to run in, rock pits to climb in, and a playground even bigger than Luke Skywalker's space craft. I worked on my Bible study lesson while the kids played, and although they did fade in and out of sight, I could always hear them. Somehow, they managed to find a long piece of rubber tubing that they tied around a tree and used to repel down the creek bed. The few portions of their bodies that were not covered in mud were adequately smeared with black stains from the hose. My response was not pretty.

Sigh. So, now I remember why I'm never in the mood to go to the park. Some days I like to wade in the creek with kids, looking for tadpoles or other treasures. Other days I like to sit and work on Bible study while kids play quietly on a swing and try not to get sand in their shoes. Does anyone have kids like that they could lend to me??