Something Beginning With..

“I spy with my little eye something beginning with……S!” said Master8.

We’d been sitting in the driveway waiting for Tracey to finish a final sweep of the house to make sure we had everything. Or more accurately, to minimize the number of things we were going to forget. She’d just arrived with nappies and sunscreen. If she’d arrived with a bottle or two of milk we’d have saved ourselves a lot of disappointment half an hour up the road.

“Sexy Daddy,” came the first guess from the back of the car, meaning I got to grin cheekily at my wife.

“I see you’ve been coaching them,” she said.

Maybe….

The answer was shed, the doors of which were the only thing visible through the front windscreen. Still, it took a minute or two to arrive at the correct answer, by which time we were backing out the drive on our way to Hervey Bay.

Not that we’d told the kids where we were going – they thought we were off to the pool.

I Spy continued through the usual suspects – T for Tree, G for Grass, C for Car – and suddenly Miss9 noticed not only were we not heading towards the pool, we were heading out of town.

“It’s a special surprise for our wedding anniversary,” I told them. “We’re going to Hervey Bay to have fish and chips for lunch and then go to their awesome water park.”

Secretly, we were also going to look at a few holiday houses we’d found on Home Away which we’re thinking of renting for a week or two sometime in the nearish future.

But for the kids, fish & chips and a water park was all they needed to know.  I assumed they’d be thrilled. I figured I’d get cheers. Applause, I thought, was not out of the question.

It played out a little differently.

“Nooooo!” came the chorus from behind us. The only thing I’ve seen the kids more united in is their love of Christmas.

As it turned out, a phone call informing us Great Grandma Mac had taken a turn for the worse had us spinning the car around and heading back to town just as we’d reached Maryborough, and I took the kids to the local pool while Tracey ducked up to the nursing home. But not before Miss6 told us exactly what she thought of our surprise.

“I spy with my little eye something beginning with L,” said Miss6.

Lights? Land? Lollies? Licence plates? Lots-of-cars? There’s not a lot of variety in some stretches between Gympie and Maryborough. The landscape is a little repetitive – lots of trees, grass, cars, trucks and cows. We were quickly out of suggestions.

We gave in.

“Liar!” yelled Miss6. “You lied about the pool, Daddy.”

I reckon I’m in for one hell of an earful when she eventually finds out about Santa.

 ’raising a family on little more than laughs’