It was a lazy Sunday afternoon.
We had already taken a neighborhood bike ride. Visited the bunnies down the street. Climbed trees. Rigged a makeshift climbing wall complete with rope and kerabiners. Gone to church. Left church a little early due to a sudden extreme hunger that surely was about to take the lives of the children (even though they had waffles before we left home). Made an emergency trip to Andolini's for pizza. Took the weekly trip to Costco (yes, they had a churro). And finally, changed into our play clothes to do a little driveway exploration.
I hadn't noticed the buds on the magnolia tree. We've been anxiously waiting for weeks. The old leaves had dropped. The boys collected them in Crews' special trailer attached to his John Deere. And my boys LOVE magnolia leaves because they make perfect little boats.
But after several nights of rain storms, the buds not only appeared, but a single one blew free of its woody tethers and landed in the yard.
When I first held it out and asked the boys to guess what it was, Teague said, "an alien," and Crews said, "a rocket." I think both both were good guesses.
When I told them we were going to unfold it and see what was inside, Teague took off into the house.
Maybe he did think it was alien. I wasn't sure. But I heard him mumbling something about the office as he disappeared into the garage.
A few minutes later he returned with three legal pads and an enormous bag of colored pencils, crayons, and markers.
We carefully peeled back the petals, each taking a turn until the flower was open.
It was in no way pristine. It had spent at least one night on the bug-filled ground. But it still looked beautiful next to their cute little toes.
Then Teague instructed Crews and I to start drawing.
I'm so happy Teague had this idea. What a wonderfully creative end to a very busy day.
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