The Little Things

Sometimes I fall into this trap of complicating my life.  I’m not the only one, am I?  Scheduling activities to keep our kids engaged, planning out a “relaxing” Saturday, spending random dollars at Craft Warehouse to come up with a DIY project.  All these things that are ok in and of themselves, but are they always necessary?

Stacie and I were reminded of this a few weeks ago.  Our families were together, hanging out and enjoying the first BBQ of the season.  Doug and Dylan were visiting (hmm, on second thought, they were cooking!) in the kitchen, Stacie and I were chatting in the living room (there may have been wine) and the girls were running around like crazy playing.  At the end of the evening, the 3 of them paraded into the living room with a balloon and started batting it around.  Stacie and I joined in and things got crazy.  I laughed so hard my side hurt, I slid across the hardwood floors in my socks in an effort to keep the balloon away from the little girls (the big girls were pretty competitive) . . . there may have been a bit of good-natured screaming and shouting and the room was charged with joy.

Not so long ago, my Grandma Joan and Aunt Wendy visited.  We went up to Naches Heights for some girl time:

Midge, Sophie, Wendy, Joan & Joani

Later, on the same Saturday afternoon, we gave new meaning to the quote “Dance like no one is watching.”  Doug found us in our living room doing this:

Joani pulled out her Michael Jackson steps and some sweet robotic moves:

You can see there was no shortage of laughter.

There was also the Hula Hooping incident of 2012.  In the process of moving Joani and John to Yakima, we came across a piece of sporting equipment that we just couldn’t put down:

Some of my best memories from the last year reminding me that moving our bodies and laughing (i.e., PLAY), leads to some pretty great times.

Last week Stacie and I exchanged emails about the fun we had playing “balloon” with our girls.  She wrote me the following:

“At the end Sophie did this sigh and said “That was fun”. It was such a sweet moment and she reminded me that little things like being silly and batting a balloon around will be cemented in our girls’ memories forever. ”

When I read this, I was sitting at my desk at work, my throat constricting and my eyes burning, and I thought:

Yes, indeed, we created some memories.  And it was no work at all . . .