The Perfect Morning

The perfect morning has scrubbed-clean bright blue skies, a nice breeze, no humidity, and temps in the 70's.

The perfect morning has a small child on a relentless mission to find every. Last. Fountain. At. Longwood.

The perfect morning has cheese crackers and raisins.

The perfect morning finds you reading "Horton Hears a Who" in a tree house to a child, while 27 billion school children on a field trip yell right next to you about bird houses and bird calls and bird nests.

The perfect morning finds a small child calling bird nests "bird nesties."

The perfect morning includes fountains with speakers and music and "Stars and Stripes Forever" and me inexplicably getting all misty-eyed when that patriotic music plays, and me telling Dexter "That's Aunt Jeanne!" when the piccolo solo plays, and Dexter looking all around for Aunt Jeanne, wondering what the hell I am talking about.

The perfect morning finds a child running "triangles" and "squares" and "rectangles" in the grass, simply for the sheer joy of running.

The perfect morning has a small child jumping off a wall about an inch off the ground, and grinning with delight because "That was a REAL BIG JUMP!"

The perfect morning has us watching the big fountains from a new vantage point, and giggling at the girls who got totally soaked when the fountains went "way up."

The perfect morning ends with lunch at the picnic table, a dog who doesn't try to eat things off the table, and a child who discovers that cheese with a "little bit of pepper" and Lebanon Bologna is possibly the world's best lunch.

It's been kind of a perfect week, really. An awesome Memorial Day parade on Monday (I am SO SAD I lost the pictures from it - I thought I had downloaded them, deleted images from my camera to make room for today's trip, and came home to realize that, alas, I have no pictures anywhere. Boooooo!). Swimming lessons and the library with Grandma on Tuesday. Art class on Wednesday. A trip to the Herr's Potato Chip Factory and a visit to the playground with awesome friends on Thursday, plus Dex came to volleyball to eat dinner and watch me play for a while. And today, Longwood. Can't get much better!

This was the best we could do, Grandma, for a picture with the dogwood trees.

The little man is a tough nut to crack some times. I know he loves the fountains. You'd think he'd, ya' know, SMILE some time? (Note - VIDEO BELOW - click on the picture to see)