Simple joy

We were supposed to go to the Annual Ice Cream Festival today. The weather had other plans. Frankly, I think the event went on despite of the torrential down pours. We just didn't join in the fun.

Instead we had our own soaking wet good time.

Constructing a patio requires a lot of sand, just not quite as much as we purchased. At least it would seem so right now. We will still have to repeat cover with sand and sweep" stage of patio building once everything has a few weeks to settle. This morning, however, a very big pile of sand still sat on tarp, covered by yet another tarp....that was covered with some fairly big puddles. The more it rained, the bigger those puddles got.

Let me back up. It started with a rabbit. A simple, brown bunny. The "Easter Bunny", as he came to be known in our house, was sitting quietly in our back yard twitching his innocent little nose. I saw him when I peered out the kitchen window. Being the good mom always on the look out for cheap fun, I rounded up the little people.

"Quick! Look!"

Logan could care less. Megan, however, was all about seeing a surprise. It was she who first murmured his name. "Ohhh, Easser Bunny!"

We stood outside on the nearly completed patio watching the little guy. We got the camera. We tracked him through my garden. "No nibbling! Just let me take a photo!" I silently pleaded.

He disappeared.

"Meg, you know what? The Easter Bunny is friends with Santa Claus. I bet he's off telling Santa you were a good girl!" I told her. I mean really, at almost two she's still bound to be gullible enough to fall for that, right?

Ha. Yeah.

"No, Mommy," Megan said. "Easser Bunny no say Ho ho ho. He not Santa friend." She wavered only slightly when Daddy backed me up. She'd drop the subject altogether until bath time tonight when she'd ask me, with a most curious yet dubious look, "Easser bunny is Santa friend?"

But again, I'm getting ahead of myself. A short time after my initial discovery of our guest, the Easter Bunny made a return visit. This time Logan was up for the wild life stalking. Daddy even joined us. The four of us stood on the patio watching the rabbit sit and try to fade into the lawn. We rolled carrots near him. (As I whispered to Bruce, "Do they really eat carrots?" I mean come on, what do I know?) The rabbit took little bitty half-hops. We took more photos.

Then Logan yelled, "He's going for the carrot!"

Bunny bolted. We saw him hip and hop around the piles of dirt created by the giant pit that began our patio project. We saw the Easter Bunny flee behind the remaining tree along our back fence. The kids busied themselves with collecting carrots from the lawn and pitching them towards the brush in hopes of getting the Easter Bunny a snack.

Bruce began to back fill the trench that separated the end of the pavers from the lawn. The kids were beginning to plot an adventure up the excess dirt pile to hunt down the Easter Bunny. I needed a diversion.

"Oh! I know!" I said out loud, more to myself than them. They all turned and looked. I recovered and continued, "Let's splash in puddles!"

They kids were still barefoot. It was perfect. I stomped and sang our way over to the tarp. To the puddles. Splash, splish! Splish, splash. In no time at all they were both soaking wet.

The rain started. Heavy rain, but rain without thunder. We'd keep on splashing. We kept on through two bursts of hard rain. We were drenched...and yet we were happy.

As the sun burned through the clouds late in the afternoon we finished off the patio. The new table and chairs went out. The flowers got planted. The solar lights were put in. The look was complete.

Some of the excess sand was even used to replenish the kid's sandbox. The tarp, however, was left out for at least one more day.

It's supposed to rain again tonight you know.