2017 Life Logs, Day 240: The Joy of Watching Kids at Play
Date: Monday, August 28, 2017
Weather: Sunny with N Winds Cooling Us Down; High 73, Low 56 degrees F
Location: At Home in The Studio, Falmouth, MA
Today was a day to just let Sam, Jonah, and Ollie play at home. After being gone for two weeks, they just wanted to hang out with the neighborhood kids. And it was a joy to watch them. Unfortunately, I didn’t anticipate that I would need my bike in order to keep up with them. But I used Heather’s bike and that worked out just fine. By lunch time, we had Cole and Leo and Zack playing at the Goldstones, so I fed everyone lunch. There next plan was to ride bikes down to the cranberry bogs to slide on the huge sand bank. They all ride their bikes through the bogs with abandon, looking much like wild ponies. Sam and Jonah can go there without an adult tagging along, but Ollie is by far the youngest in the group and he can’t go with adult supervision. So, I sat on the bank above the bog and just watched them play. We were there for over an hour before that got boring and then the decided to head to Cole and Leo’s to have a water gun fight. I stayed there with Ollie so he could be a part of the water battle, but when it was time for the big boys to have a treat at the Hennon’s, Ollie and I went next door to Smitty’s for our treat. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a little one enjoy an ice cream cone as much as Ollie did this afternoon.
And then the group decided to move on to Zach’s house. I went along with Ollie to make sure he was going to be included in the group, and once I was comfortable that the big boys would look after him, I left them and went around the corner to Heather’s. She was home by now and checking on her bees.
Another delight to watch. My only job today was to revel in the joy of watching children, big and little, play. Lucky me!
All of us are feeling like summer went by too fast. I thought maybe it was just me that felt that way, but Cole Hennon shared with me at lunch time that he just doesn’t know where this summer went. He said that he looked forward to it for so long and that it doesn’t feel quite fair that it went by so quickly. I agree. The fact that the kids didn’t get out of school until the last week of June and then the weather was cooler than usual didn’t help. But we are going to make sure we enjoy this last week of summer 2017. The wind from the north is making the days cool and the nights chilly. But with sunshine, we’ll do just fine, especially since warmer weather is forecast to arrive early next week. School might be starting next week, but summer’s not over yet.
