Friday, October 22, 2010

Swinging under the stars ...

Tory and Wendy Christensen - swinging.

It was one of those nights (the rare kind) nowhere we had to be … nothing urgent waiting to be done. No homework, no after school events. What did we do? We decided to take a walk. Yup, the entire family hit the street with no particular destination in mind – just being together, enjoying the cool, fall night and air.

We found ourselves at a playground full of swings, monkey bars and slides. It didn’t take long for everyone to find something to do. The kids played tag and my husband and I slipped away into the swings.

It was a lovely night - simple, relaxing and fun. When it was too dark to see we all walked home – satisfied with the time we all enjoyed together.
The memory of this evening was brought to my attention earlier this week as I was helping in my daughter’s second grade class. Each member of her class is working on a story about their family and my assignment each week is to help them complete their stories so they can have them published.

My daughter was the last student sent out to the hall (for me to help) and as she read her story to me – I couldn’t help but smile as I heard her read from the last page of her book …

“We had the best time at the park. My brothers chased me and we played tag and my Mom and Dad were swinging on the swings ….” The illustration for this page contained 3 little people playing tag and 2 little parents swinging.

Isn’t it amazing how the simple things can have such a lasting and impressionable affect on our lives?