And then in real life well, it looks more like......real life.
Several weeks ago our little town celebrated 250 years with a fireworks display. I thought it would be fun to pack all my pajama clad munchkins into the van, pop some corn and take in the show. After all we had to travel all of two and a half miles, what did we have to lose?
It was time to leave. Finding seven pairs of footwear is apparently a 10 minute process. One batch of popcorn doesn't look like enough. The coffee pot drips miserably slow when it's being watched. Finally, with a few rolled eyes and several impatient huffs we stuff everyone into the van and run through the typical "he took my seat" scenario.
Mommy is starting the question the wisdom of this outing that begins well after bedtime. But my spirits are renewed when we pull into a perfect spot. Not much traffic and we'll have no problem viewing from the comfort of our van. Except I forgot to calculate that fireworks typically go more than 10 feet off the ground. Our mini van is not a convertible.
So we open the doors and line up on the edge. Now we're all whiny cause we're cold. We fight over the popcorn, blankets, good seats and mommy's lap while we wait. Finally, everyone is settled. Until the first booming explosion lights up the sky....they all burst into tears, "it's too loud."
Thankfully they got used to the idea after a few minutes. It was just the initial unexpected volume that startled them. And it turned out to be a pretty impressive show for small town USA.
And when it was all over, I was glad we went. I usually am. I just hope that when my children grow up they remember the popcorn and fireworks in a "Kodak moments" sort of way and not the spats and issues between here and there. And we'll chalk this up as another reminder to Mommy to keep the expectations low, or at least realistic, whether it's about 'Grand Adventures,' small people and their chores, getting umpteen things crossed off my 'to do' list or sleeping through the night. Real life rarely looks like the previews in my mind, but why is it so hard to remember that?
Kyra is obviously NOT impressed :) Although Zach looks like he's enjoying himself. Doing things like this is what makes such beautiful memories...maybe in a few years, your memory will say that the whole evening actually was a "Kodak moment".
ReplyDelete--sherri