Treasure!

Sometimes having kids whine at me and dealing with fighting and nappies and coughs and sleep and making dinner and laundry and ‘she kicked me’ and ‘he’s wrecking our joint’ and all of that… sometimes I forget to stop and smile. Lightening’s Smiley Saturday Me Me made me stop and think tonight, what made me smile today? This is what made me smile –

Before it thundered and lighteninged and rained this afternoon it was a glorious sunny Saturday morning. The trio of small people and I raced through breakfast and clambered into the Big White Bus and headed in to town to spend big bucks on more asthma preventer meds before the Twinadoe’s coughs turn into a ‘you’re-to-sick-to-go-to-kinder’ kinder of thing (The incubator and chicken eggs arrive on Monday they do NOT want to miss that). On the way down the hill I noticed a sign nailed to a tree – ah yes today was the day of the church fete, maybe we should stop by for a quick look? We are a sucker for jumping castles and face painting you know.

A tiny, old and musty church hall was literally packed to the rafters with goods and people. The girls baulked at the idea of the crowded room when we first walked in, and I can’t say I blame them. It was a real old fashioned fete, complete with cake stall, book stall, devonshire tea, op shop specials, pickles and jams, raffles and up in the back corner a toy stall. It was the boxes of fluffy toys that caught Izzy’s eyes and gave her the courage to step into the mayhem, dragging her sister with her.

We wove our way through tables and boxes, squeezing past people looking for a bargain and sampling home made scones and jam with cups of tea in mismatched tea cups. Finally we made it to the toy stall.
“Can we get something Mama?”

A quick scan of the boxes and I saw a lot of soft toys (something we’ve tried to limit because of allergies) and junky bits and pieces. For someone trying to get rid of ‘stuff’ in our house this wasn’t very inspiring. But the girls eyes were twinkling as they surveyed the ‘stuff’ and the lovely old man behind the table bought out two big boxes and encouraged them to dig in as he put them down in front of them. “You never know what you’ll find in there, might be some treasure” he said.

Well that was enough to make Izzy just about wet her pants in delight… treasure… she loves the prospect of a bit of treasure! They didn’t wait for me to give in and agree to let them buy something they just dug right in and rifled through a box or two, picking up the odd toy and discarding it when it was not the exact treasure they were looking for.

Zoe pulled out a small bag of plastic toys, some animals, and bits and pieces, but what caught her eye was Bambi. While waiting at the dentist the other night I read them the story of Bambi for the first time so to find a little Bambi figurine was real treasure for Zoe. She looked up at me and I knew what she was going to say before she said it … “Please Mum…. it’s Bambi!” On the side of the bag was written ‘5 cents’.. how could I refuse??

Izzy was still rummaging through her box, the old gentleman looking on in delight as she muttered about treasures. Then she pulled up a big bag of toys. Mostly the kind of toys you get when you buy a kids meal at a fast food restaurant, the kind of toys we had had a raging argument about not getting just the day before when we treated ourselves to eating lunch out. She looked up at me ‘There’s a turtoise (no that is not a typo it’s a cross between a turtle and a tortoise) in there… and all kinds of things”. On the side of her bag was written ’50 cents’.

I sighed and smiled and handed over 60 cents (I didn’t have a five cent piece so I generously let them keep the change). “See girls, that’s real treasure you’ve got there… enjoy it!” said the nice old man, the girls could barely tear themselves away from eyeing off the contents to say thank you.

We managed to fight our way around a few more stalls. I bought a book for my Mum for Christmas – for a whopping great 50 cents. Several little old ladies told me how much the girls didn’t look like me, none of them noticing I had my look alike baby strapped to my back. We bought a raffle ticket and then headed for home, with our treasures.

Our house is now home to several plastic animals that are missing one or two legs, a handful of characters from obscure kids movies I only vaguely recognise, a Whinnie The Pooh magnifying glass, AND a bean filled turtoise with hand coloured shell, and a four centimetre plastic Bambi – For 60 cents and four hours of joyful play this afternoon, that certainly is treasure!

For more Smiley Saturdays head on over to Lightening’s place