Saturday, April 10, 2010

I Got Sunshine...

You know when you expect a day to be sunny and warm because, well, the weatherman TELLS you it's going to be, and you live in California, and it's supposed to be sunny and warm, damn it!? And then you wake up and it's overcast over your head and downright storm-cloudy in the distance? And even though it's almost mid-April, you still need a long-sleeved shirt AND a sweater. And you had awesome plans to fly remote control helicopters at the park and have a picnic lunch? Well, let's be honest, your husband and his new friend (who is of course the husband of your friend) are the ones who are going to fly remote control helicopters. You're going to focus more on the picnic lunch part. But now you can't take the copters out because it's windy and rainy and so you have to scrap the whole outing? You know those days? Yeah, usually, they suck.

But today, instead of canceling and sulking, we decided to switch out the remote control copters for kites. Kites like wind. Kites are easy and have no loud motors to freak out the child (Ethan is just not a fan of whirring engines; Power Wheels make him twitchy, poor kid). So we stopped at Target, picked up a two pack of kites--one Spider*Man and one Barbie. We truly didn't intend to buy into gender stereotypes (I'm working on a post about this), but that's the pack Ethan picked out. If he'd grabbed onto the one that was Barbie and Disney Princesses, that would have been fine too. And then we headed over to our friends' house, Husband peering up at the sky every few minutes, "thinking aloud" about whether it really might be clear enough for the helicopters. While rain drops fell on our windshield. Poor Husband.

When we got to our destination, we headed over to the local park, assembled the kites and let the "No, Daddy!!! I fly the kite!!!!"'ing begin. Note to self: Next time, bring Husband his own kite.

You can't see it because of the kites, but there's a big happy face in there.

Note: Serious Action Sequence Below. Also? So. Much. Happy.






Until...
Ethan's kite went a little too high, flapped a bit too loudly in the wind and freaked him right out. He became very afraid that the kite was going to fly away because it was too windy.

Which, HaHa! Your kite's not going to fly away, kid! That's so funny! Don't be afraid! Except, less than five minutes later, that's exactly what happened to his friend's kite. She let go of it, it caught a draft and we watched that little Barbie kite fly like the freaking wind into the stratosphere, her dad running after it through the entire park, hoping it would lose it's draft and nose-dive to the ground. It did not. The last we saw it, it was a tiny sparkling fleck against the clouds, somewhere over the neighborhood adjacent to the park. Never to be seen again (by us, at least). Which got this response out of him:

The Horror. Also? The Hungry. The Tired. The I'm Bored With This Kite Flying Thing Now.

After the park, and the run-away kite scarring our children forever, we went back to our friends' house for picnic lunch (inside, by the fire) and then the kids took off to play Play Dough and dressed up as tutu-clad firemen (again with the fun gender identification of preschoolers).

The grown-ups broke out the Cranium Turbo and giggled for the next hour watching each other behave ridiculously for the sake of moving forward on the game board. My friend's husband (who was my teammate) can charade the shit out of "Hangover" (seriously, all he had to do was lean forward, put his hands on his knees, exhale and I jumped up, shouting, "HANGOVER!!!") and me? I can apparently hum the Super Freak like a pro. But I cannot draw sideburns with my eyes closed and I do not know the origin of the car name "Volvo" (and I'm sorry, but Latin for "I roll" does NOT sound right to me, Mr. Cranium).

So sure, it rained and was cloudy and cold almost all day long. And that was a bummer. But we laughed and ran and played anyway, and it was awesome.


7 comments:

Crafty is the new black said...

Big SMILES!!!!

angelynn said...

What an awesome day! The weather was the same here today and we kept ourselves inside. It would have been so much fun to go to the park and fly kites. I love the action shots of your son. He looks so happy. I really enjoy the way you write about your family. It makes me feel like I was there.

I'm interested to read your gender ID piece too. I have two boys (which means very little pink in the house) and my 2yo son is addicted to shiny pink toys. When we're at a friend's house he goes straight to the little girl's room (very pink). Thank you for this post. It sounded wonderful.

Sarah said...

Just posted about gender roles today!

Sounds like a fun day, and E is more adorable than ever!

amanda said...

That child has the same effect on me as an unexpected compliment— I'm all flustered, happy and gooey.

Corinne Cunningham said...

Fynn looooves flying kites all by himself also ;) I forgot how much fun kites could be until I had kids! There's something so amazing about watching them fly.
Cranium is hilarious! Haha, maybe we can find Cranium in NYC and have a Cranium night at BlogHer ;)

sarah said...

Oh, Corrine, you are SO on with the Cranium! I will pack it in my bag if I have to! LOL From my experience last year, the BlogHer parties are kind of "meh," so I will be TOTALLY up for alternative evening entertainment this year.

Room service and Cranium?! Sounds perfect! LOL

Becca said...

That sounds like a ton of fun!!

We have had georgeous weather recently--sunny and warm. Today was cool and overcast with drizzle and it was kind of nice, in its own way!