Yesterday

Wa-ell, we had quite a day yesterday! Tuesdays have been very busy for us, in a good kind of way. Hibi has been taking an art class in the morning that's close to our house, within walking distance, and walk she did yesterday, when I had a vacation church school meeting to attend at the church and couldn't pick her up. She walked it just fine, even though she was offered a ride by one of the moms--she likes to walk sometimes just because she's such an independent kid. So, we did all that, and my meeting was over at about noon. Zac and I went home, then we all ate lunch and headed out to homeschool park day, where Hibi met some other girls around her age! They all had a great time, after they all got over their mopey "oh, do I have to meet someone new" thing. That ended when I said to the other girls that Hibi was wanting to play some games. What kind of games? Oh, she was wanting to play Mafia. Mafia! the twins said in unison with perked-up eyes. We like Mafia! Now, I'll have to leave explaining the game of Mafia to Hibi, but my introduction to it was one day at park day in San Francisco, we moms realized suddenly that ALL the kids, from very young to the oldest, were all sitting in a circle and they'd been sitting like that for a long time already. Very unusual. Turns out they were playing Mafia. Apparently it's a game that can capture the imaginations of all ages of kids.

So, they had a fun afternoon and then we stopped by the grocery store to get some things Hibi wanted to make stuffed mushrooms that night. She and I made dinner, and we ate it early. I had choir practice to get to, and I headed out the door at 6:30. I wanted to check with the kids first and make sure they knew they had to do their chores before I got home. But the kids weren't outside where I'd last heard them playing. Came back in and they weren't there either. Called for them all around the backyard, down the street, in the basement, in their rooms. Paul got in the car and drove around the block, where they like to walk, and then generally in the neighborhood. When he came back without them we called the police. We asked neighbors if they'd seen them and they hadn't. The police got there and got a description of them and our cell phone numbers, then headed out looking. I stayed at the house while Paul went out driving as well. He walked through the park, nothing. The neighbors came over to keep me company while I was standing forlornly out there waiting for my kids to re-appear. That was the first time I met those neighbors, by the way....heck of a way to meet your neighbors. While talking with them, I realized that the neighbors up the street had been outside the whole time and if anything had happened out of the ordinary, they surely would have seen it, so that made me feel a bit better. Then a woman who was visiting family up the street, whom I'd asked if she'd seen the kids, came over and told me that she'd asked her daughter and her husband, and they'd seen kids matching our description walking that way and they seemed to be looking for a tree to climb. Well, that sounded like our kids! I called Paul and gave him this tip--they'd already told the policeman who'd stopped to talk with them. That jogged Paul's memory that the kids had been talking about going on a "cherry expedition"--to find cherry trees to raid. Soon after that, just as the neighbors had suggested I get out some pictures of the kids, the police came back and said "we've got them!" Poor Zac was crying--he was so scared by being picked up by the police. Hibi said she had to think about whether she was going to get into the car--what if it was someone just *pretending* to be a policeman? We asked why they didn't tell us where they were going, and they said they did! When? We told Dad while he was setting the table. Before dinner??? But you didn't leave until after dinner.....Plus, they'd thought they were just going to go down the block and come back, but that tree didn't have accessible cherries on it so they continued walking. Anyway, I'm sure glad that the worst case scenario that was floating through my mind was not what happened, and I think they'll make sure to tell us where they're going from now on.

The kids say that the seat in the back of a police car is very hard. And I never made it to choir practice.