Last night I got home from work and decided to take Benny to the park to the weekly neighbourhood soccer match. It was adults against kids and the kids won. We had so much fun playing. I was playing in my bare feet in the mud (I thoughlessly wore my sandles to the match so needed to improvise). While the ritual is for the kids to have post game pizza together in the park, there was none left by the time Benny got to it.
On the way home, Benny had a great idea: “Mama, why don’t we make a restaurant at home and make our own pizza and we could serve our “customers” dinner. I was immediately on board (Forget about the fact that it was already 8:30 pm on a Tuesday night). We didn’t care. We were in the moment and we were going to roll with it.
We put on tunes, made signs, I put on a bandana over my head (just like a “Diner” grill-master would have) and we whipped up our menu: Home-made pizza and then ice-cream Sundays with melted Reases peanut butter cups as the sauce.
We sat on the second floor deck in the summer evening air and ate. “Chef’s” eat first right? As we sat outside, Benny kept commenting: “Mama, its like we own Madam Beauff (a restaurant across the street where you can order inside, but eat outside and which happens to have some fun patio games on the patio – think been bag toss. Kind of, But No! As Benny put it, our restaurant was called “Benny and Mama’s Hang Out Place” .
As we were going to bed, Benny informed me that “the restaurant was going to open at 7am Wednesday morning for breakfast”. The next morning, I served him fried eggs and the sharade continued. When it was my turn, he told me to take my shower and my breakfast would be ready when I came out. This is what I arrived to:
I was filled with joy. That my little 6 year old could put together a plate of some of my fave things (including chocolate for breakfast!), arrange it on a place so cutely (with little side bowls) and seat me down with so much love. Love. Its so great.
