“Aren’t You Going to Put It Away?”

Summer is so much fun, right? Constant togetherness with your sibling. Not enough “fun” stuff to do. Your mom constantly saying, “Go read a book!” when you complain about being bored. It’s been a long couple of weeks since we returned from the “Epic Adventure!” (Yes, I am working on sharing some of those stories, but THAT is a project!)

The summer has been different for the girls. Usually they get to pick a couple of Girl Scout camps to attend and then we do fun stuff on the off weeks. Well because the Epic Adventure began on the last day of school, we opted to not do any Girl Scout camps. That means since returning from the 23-day, 6,149 mile road trip we haven’t done much “fun stuff.”

Today the girls were picking at each other as usual and I was getting more and more frustrated. So in my infinite wisdom I told them to enjoy the TV today because there will be NO TV tomorrow. (Pretty sure this is a case where I am punishing myself more than them!) UGH!

Anyway, the Little One just wanted to play in the backyard. She kept asking the Big One, badminton? Frisbee? Catch? Baseball? Water balloons? Each time the Big One refused. Oh the joys of tweendom.

So I told the Little One I would play with her despite the laundry, dirty dishes, etc. So first up was badminton. It was only a matter of minutes before the birdie was on the patio roof. So I dragged out the ladder, climbed to the top, used the giant broomstick and retrieved the birdie. Then I put the ladder away while the Little One put the broom away.

A few more minutes of badminton and guess what happened? Yep! Birdie on the roof again. So I again got out the ladder and broom, and repeated the retrieval process. This time I also retrieved two hula hoops while I was up there.  Then we put the ladder and broom back in the garage.

Then I suggested we try something different. The Little One was onboard so she grabbed the Frisbee. A few tosses of the Frisbee and all was well, until it wasn’t,  and we watched as the Frisbee soared up and over the fence. Of course it went towards the corner of the yard so we weren’t sure which neighbor’s yard it went into. So I grabbed the ladder again. This time the Little One climbed up and peeked over the fence to see which neighbor we were going to visit. She spotted the Frisbee and off we went around the block to retrieve it.

Our elderly neighbor sweetly told us to “go on in the back and get it!” So the Little One went thru the neighbor’s gate and retrieved it.

We walked back home and tossed the Frisbee again for a bit. Things were going so well. Then the Little One tried to get a little fancy and what do you think happened? Yep, back up on the roof it went. So guess what we did? Yep, got the ladder and broomstick out of the garage. I climbed to the top of the ladder and retrieved the Frisbee.

Only this time, when I climbed back down the ladder, I simply folded it up and leaned it against the outside of the garage.

The Little One, who was perplexed after putting the broomstick away yet again asked, “Mom, aren’t you going to put it away?”

Fool me once kid, shame on you. Fool me twice kid, shame on me. Only it took me three times to learn my lesson!

I only wish that I could say the story ended here. But alas it does not. After the third trip up the ladder, I decided I needed a drink of water. So I turned my back on the Little One for all of 6 seconds to take a sip of water and what do you think she did?

Nope, it didn’t go on the roof…. It went over the fence again! So back around the corner we went. This time I assured our neighbor we were done with the Frisbee.