Dinner

It is eight eighteen on Friday night… everyone under four years old is asleep in bed.

 And I just realized: I totally forgot to feed my children dinner.  Yes. I did.

 But let me explain. Here’s how it went down. Husband Joe came home from work early so at three I gave the boys a quick snack and popped them in the car and we all went and got ice cream. We drove down to the river and ate ice cream and told the boys not to stand on the picnic tables and told Ellie not to eat sticks.  Joe played soccer with the boys – I brought Ellie over to look at the splashing water. The boys chased Joe around the grass. Joe and I picked the kids up by their feet and spun them around in circles until Guy started stumbling. We were on the brink of seeing ice cream again.

Guy almost ran into the parking lot. Guy got a timeout in the car. Joey, Guy, Ellie, Joe and I stood and waved at boats. The people on the boats waved back. We told the boys not to jump off picnic tables. Ellie almost ate a pinecone.  We put everyone back in the car and drove home…

We walked into the door at quarter to six and Joey and Guy announced that they were ready for dinner- but the dog had to be let out, Ellie had to have dirt washed off her face, I had to put laundry away. So I told the boys the magical “just a minute”…. They busied themselves with toys until it started raining.

 Fun husband Joe was watching the boys- I was folding laundry and I look out and the boys are shirtless, shoeless, soaked in rain, running around like little wild men outdoors. Whooping and hollering trying to catch rain on their tongues, hands, face, eyes. Those little boys played in the pouring rain running and sliding for about half an hour until Joe called them in for baths. Then it was time for refilling the laundry baskets with dirty clothes, then baths, books, prayers, kisses and bed.

And all of a sudden it is eight eighteen. And everyone under four years old is asleep.

There’s really not a fantastic excuse why I forgot to feed my children.

I just forgot. And they did too. I won’t worry about it too much. No one seemed to mind.