Contentment and Art

Do you have those days when everything seems to fall into place? When life seems suddenly easy and your kids seem perfect and life is just good? It doesn't even have to be the whole day -- just a few hours that are so good that they overshadow any of the not-so-fun parts of the rest of the day. 

I want to bottle that feeling of contentment. I want to tear off a scrap of it and carry it in my pocket. I want to figure out its recipe and make more of it day after day. 

It feels so simple, really. We decided to finally hit the artist-designed mini golf course at the Walker Art Center this morning. It was the perfect day for it. Not too hot, beautiful blue skies...perfect. We all had a good time on the course, although my personal review is that it wasn't a very good value. For $26, we only got to play 7 holes. If we'd wanted to play the other course (another 6 holes), we would have had to pay an additional $13. No thanks. 

When we were done putting, we walked across the street to the Sculpture Garden, which the boys had never seen (which is ridiculous now that I think about it). The boys became unexpectedly giddy as we walked through the sculptures and arrived at Spoonbridge and Cherry.

Needless to say, we will be returning to the Sculpture Garden soon, as I can't think of any other free activity that's elicited this much excitement from the kids lately.

After our art adventure, we took the kids to Chiang Mai Thai for lunch. I had pad thai on my mind because I just started reading "Death by Pad Thai." (I haven't actually gotten to anything about pad thai yet, but the name was enough to start the craving.) The boys had never had Thai food, but I was undaunted. 

One order of chicken satay, cream cheese wontons, pad thai, a banana smoothie, and a Sprite later and we were all nice and full without a single tantrum or refusal to eat - even from Mr. "Do they have macaroni and cheese?" Owen. 

Maybe it's silly, but I couldn't have been more proud. It's a wonderful feeling to know that you can take your kids to new places -- "grown-up" places -- and that all of you can actually enjoy yourselves. It's that feeling that our lives are fully integrated...that we are still people and that parenthood isn't just a constant loop of cartoons and ketchup and interminable games of Chutes & Ladders. Not that we don't still have all those things, but it's nice to know that there's more.