Flower wars
On this day, we had friends over for a backyard BBQ. It was an all-day affair to celebrate my husband’s birthday, with a bonfire, marshmallow roasting, a giant wild salmon to grill, hula hooping, hackey sacking, tree climbing, chickens, sprinkler play and all sorts of other treats.
Evelyn chasing Maddy with flowers
Madelyn (7) enlisted the help of our friend’s 14 yr old daughter to collect a wheelbarrel full of flowers to dump on the lawn so she could lay on them. When the “bed of flowers” was finished, she called us over to share her moment. It was really sweet. After a while, the kids began picking up the bunches of flowers and throwing them at one another, like a snowball fight, only with flowers.
My friend and I were calling it a “flower war” and enjoyed watching the kids having so much fun.
Evelyn came and sat with us at one point, she’d been enjoying the flower game with the other kids and needed a little break. One of us mentioned the “flower war” and she looked confused. It’s not a war, it’s called “flower catching” and we were struck by the idea that we’d chosen the word “war” whe she was choosing the word “catching.”
My drink caught a flower
To be truthful, when the 14 yr old girl pinned her big brother down and stuffed his mouth with flowers, the word “war” might have been a little more accurate, but it’s all about perception, right?
Interesting how we find ourselves inserting meaning that the kids just didn’t have. That last part is hilarious though!
I’ll never forget “flower wars/catching” at your house! It will live on forever in my memory… It was a wonderful evening. Thank you for including us.
How interesting. We often assume kids have adult perceptions, but it’s more likely we actually lost the perceptions of children when we grew up. My four year old is always giving me different and interesting perspectives and explanations of things as well. (PS love your drink!)
Chris
ha ha!!! I some how omitted the punctuation when reading about the chickens and tree climbing – I had to reread it twice before I realized it did not say “tree climbing chickens.” LOL!!! Man, I wish I lived closer to you!