A perfect day: picnic with gnome!

Oh it's such a perfect day... I'm glad I spent it with you...

That has always been one of my favorite songs, with it's lyrics about the joys of simple zoo visits and being together on a lovely day, just enjoying eachother. Lately, the boys and I have had very few of those perfect days. Each in turn being ill, or in Michael's case just generaly crabby and crying have left me frazzled and holding on by the skin of my teeth. And then, all of a sudden comes a day like today.






The weather is beautiful and the boys act like human children (actually, Joseph has been behaving really well in general lately). We decide on a visit to Jesus in a nearby church and a small picnic afterwards. But first we had to go to the store for an important purchase: our first Garden gnome. I have always loved Garden Gnomes, under the influence of Rien Poortvliet, the Efteling and all the folklore surrounding them. Now that we have a gnome worthy garden with trees and leaves and squirels, we needed a gnome. And I had spied the perfect one a week or so ago: a nice old countrygnome riding a ladybug and reading a book. Perfect. Joseph loves Ladybugs, and everyone in our house loves books!




So off we went, to get the gnome. We picked up some bubbles and drove to Church. I had miscalculated and daily mass was going on, so we joined in for the end of that. After mass we went in for a few more moments to blow a kiss to Jesus and genuflect, and then... we had our picnic in the church garden.The gnome was invited too.





The boys frolicked on the playground, ate the food we had packed, chased the bubbles I blew and proved to be the perfect fodder for my clicking camera in between.Such a perfect day. I hate to say it out of fear of seeing it pop like one of our soapbubbles, but the memory will last me a while.