Ssshhh! Can you hear that? If I could capture it and play it here I would. It was the sound today that made me the most grateful.
My 5 year old daughter asked my husband and I if she could have a ‘summer party’. We laughed. Thought about it. Laughed. Then thought why not. And so, yesterday, we invited some of her friends for a playtime this evening. To be honest, I figured most would be out of town.
In fact, they weren’t out of town. They were in town. They came. Brought siblings. Parents. Snacks. Juice Boxes. Beers. Balls and Bats. Bikes. Scooters. Sidewalk chalk. Pizzas. Soccer. Cookies. Fruits. Fun.
It was very fun. And then…they got hot. More little baby red cheeks than I knew what to do with. We hadn’t planned for this. In fact, we hadn’t planned for any of this really. It was just an email on a whim yesterday.
I finally looked around and asked if anyone would mind if I turned the sprinkler on. Everyone looked relieved at the suggestion. But no one had brought bathing suits. I gathered as many of my children’s old bathing suits as I could and doled them all out to the kids in the yard. Everyone seemed very okay with this. We filled a baby pool. Set up the sprinkler. And let life happen.
Hilarious. SO many children SQUEEZED into a baby pool. Running and squealing through the sprinkler. Hitting the wiffle ball and bat. Kicking a soccer ball around. LAUGHING HYSTERICALLY. SQUEALING.
That’s the sound. The sound I wish I could bottle and keep, not to sell, but just to be a daily reminder of how good life is. Amidst all the madness going on in our world today, if you could imagine 15 children squeezed into a 5 foot wide plastic baby pool on a hot summer night laughing hysterically, it is perfect.
Who knew that this plan on a whim could create such extraordinary goodness.
~K
I can hear it! Gorgeous writing.
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