How do you whittle away the time from when the sun goes down (5pm) until bedtime (first one goes down at 8pm)? Well, eating dinner and doing chores takes a good hour out of that chunk of time. But then comes the familiar refrain, "What do you want to do with us tonight?" from the kids.
Typically, every night of the week except Friday is busy with some sort of extra curricular activity. There is always a practice to haul someone to. Sometimes it means getting creative with what to make for dinner and when we get to eat. But I will not sacrifice sitting down at the table to eat together - even if all we get is 15 minutes.
So you can imagine our complete and utter shock at finding a free night on our calendar this week. We didn't know what to do with ourselves. No where to rush off to after scarfing down our food. This was odd. So Chuck came up with the brilliant plan of "Hide And Seek In The Dark". Who wouldn't love that?
We moved all shoes out of the way to discourage any unnecessary tripping. We turned off every single light in the house. Since it was pitch black outside, that added an extra 'cool factor' allure. Of course we knew Chloe would never in a million years go hide in the dark all by herself. So she and Chuck were a convenient team of two. That's always fun...trying to find a hiding spot for two people all at the same time while someone is loudly counting down seconds within earshot. We like to up the ante in the stress department.
We had our main 'base' and discussed the rules. We have a bunch of law abiding citizens in this house who take rules very seriously. So this was an integral part of our evening. Afterall, if you're going to let your children run rampant in your house in the pitch black, you've got to lay some ground rules. When everyone seemed satisfied, we let the games begin.
However, I forgot to mention one thing. Ninja, ever the loyal pup, decided all on her own that she wanted to play and that she wanted to be on my team. First off, she doesn't hide. She just follows me and sits and stares at me where ever I am. I couldn't shoo her away to save my life. If I sat under the desk, she sat to where she could see me, boring a hole through me all while wagging her tail. She's nothing if not serious about this game. Another time, I found a great spot behind Bennett's door. Too bad there wasn't room for both me and my partner. She thought the second best option was to keep her eye on me. Afterall, I was in the Bird's room now and she still doesn't trust the bird all that much. She's still a tad bit jealous. She was not about to let that bird have all that alone time with me. Yet again, all one had to do was look for Ninja and there you would find Mommy. Something tells me the game was rigged.
I am happy to report no one got injured and everyone got found or made it home to 'base' safe and sound. The older the kids get, the more a competitive game this becomes. Looks like I should plan on being 'it' the rest of my life...I don't see myself winning any time soon with Ninja's help.
