Spring has sprung in the Midwest. Yahoo!
The black mounds of snow have finally disappeared and plump robins are taking their place in the yard. Tulips are starting to pop and the days are getting longer. I am a fan of the occasional cozy rainy day, but I can only handle a few of those a week, once I’ve tasted the long-awaited gift of a sunny spring day.
I’m like an anxious 8-year-old on Christmas Eve. Come on spring! I know you need the rain to make everything green and colorful, but I can’t wait any longer!!
I suspect our friend Steven from Seattle can relate to my impatience. He shared the most AWESOME small rebellion with us…
“Who says dinner has to be in the dining room? Who says picnics have to be at a park? All day my mom has been talking about having a picnic…but there’s one problem. It’s been raining all day, and anyway, it’s too cold out for a picnic. (OK, I guess that’s 2 problems.) My dad and I thus conspired to have a small rebellion.
While my mom was innocently working in her office (she works at home), my dad and I went to the grocery store and got some picnic foods (chicken, potato salad, bean salad, pea salad). When we got home, we set up our fold-up picnic table in the living room, got out the paper plates and plastic silverware, and set the table for a picnic. In our living room. I put on my “Thundering Rainstorm” CD (which is exactly what it says…no music involved) for atmosphere, and we called my mom. We then brought the food in a box, as we normally do for picnics, and we had a very memorable dinner (much to her surprise), amid the sound of thunder and rain. We finished off the night by going to the movies (see: our family room, where the TV and DVD player are), where we watched Tangled. Mischief managed!”
Taking a spoiled picnic indoors and turning it into a memory is quite the small rebellion. Thanks for inspiring us, Steven!
Once when I was in college, my boyfriend at the time and I stayed up all night and decided to visit the campus dining hall first thing when it opened one Sunday morning. As the first ones to arrive for breakfast, we had our choice of hundreds of tables. So when he turned to me to ask where I’d like to sit, of course I took my tray and plunked myself down on the floor between several of them.
He was so enchanted by the novelty of the act that the next year (after he and I were seeing other people) he invited a small group of us to join him for a pre-planned anniversary picnic on the floor of the dining hall. It didn’t have the magic and spontaneity of the original, but it was still a lot of fun to take part in and we all had a blast.
Great idea! Once when I was teaching preschool and the snow never wanted to give spring a chance (in Utah we don’t really have spring, we have “sprinter”), we planned a pool part indoors. The kids all brought their swimsuits, beach towels, flip flops, those blow-up arm thingys, and beach balls. We listened to the Beach Boys, made sandcastles, had a pretend shark attack (where I did my best Baywatch – Pamela Anderson to the rescue!), and surfed on nap mats. All we needed was a sunburn and the whole experience would have completely authentic ;)
Awesome! That reminds me of when it snowed in December, and as I left work, I was listening to the Beach Boys on my Zune…walking through the snow. It made me laugh.
In other news, that picnic sure was fun! :-)