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‘Aren’t these just so cute?’ Dani held up a pair of overalls for Malcolm to look at.
‘It’s a pair of overalls about the right size for Gracie.’
‘Oh, come on, Malcolm. These are cute. Admit it!’
Malcolm smiled and shook his head at Dani. It was a midweek day off for Dani while Mia was in school. Gracie was more than happy to spend a morning at daycare with her friends. The two adults had opted to go out and get some shopping done without any kids in tow. ‘I have never found any sort of clothes ‘cute’.’
‘If I recall Malcolm you did find that one dress I wore to be very cute on me.’
‘I found it cute on you when it was coming off.’ Malcolm grinned at her and took the smack on his arm she gave him. ‘Fine, it’s cute. Is it at least a bit bigger than she is right now? She’s growing faster than the weeds in the yard.’
‘That’s what kids do, Malcolm.’ Dani placed the overalls in the cart, kissed him on the cheek and they went back to finishing the shopping they had planned on getting done.
As they strolled through the toys section, Malcolm stopped for a moment with his head cocked to one side. He was looking at a graphic on a large box of floating pool noodles where kids were running about with them. ‘Dani? Do you remember if we still have those yard game kits from last year?’
‘I’m pretty sure you stored them in the shed. The girls didn’t really care much for playing croquet.’
‘Or cricket.’ Malcolm remembered trying to show Gracie how to set the bails on the stumps only to have her try to chew on them. He grabbed two of the noodles and set them in the cart.
‘What are you up to?’
‘I have an idea for some fun with the girls.’ Malcolm explained his idea to Dani who laughed. ‘Good?’
‘Very good!’ Dani agreed.
Back home, Dani made them lunch while Malcolm got busy in the back yard. Laying out the purchases from the store, Malcolm had to do a bit of mental plotting to make things work out. In the shed, Malcolm found the backyard games kits out. He kept out the croquet set and the cricket kit. There was a hula hoop tucked at the back as well which he grabbed. With those out in the yard, he went back and pulled out the football and the larger ball the girls played with.
Dani came out to stand on the small back deck they had to watch him. ‘Isn’t this going to get too complicated for Gracie?’
‘Our smart little lady? No way.’ Malcolm grinned as he took off the labels from the pool noodles. He easily cut them in half with a sharp knife and laid them out to start off the obstacle course. From there, Malcolm placed out assorted obstacles for Gracie to do through the course. He tied in the swing set to the course before finishing it off with the two balls and the hula hoop.
‘What do you think?’ Malcolm surveyed his work from the deck.
Dani chuckled. ‘I can’t see her actually finishing it.’
‘Of course she will. I’ll have Mia run through it first to show Gracie how it’s done. Then we’ll see her fly through it.’
‘Speaking of our girls,’ Dani looked at her wristwatch. ‘Shall we go get them?’
‘Yes, lets.’
An hour later, Dani was walking up the front path to the door with Mia holding her hand. Gracie had decided that Malcolm would be the perfect horse for her to ride. She towered over everyone as she gripped tight to her father’s short hair. Malcolm’s large hands held tight onto her legs to keep her perched on his shoulders as they walked home.
‘Down you get, little lady.’ Malcolm squatted down and Gracie used his back as a slide to thump onto the grass. ‘Inside you go, dinner will be ready soon. Then I have a surprise for the two of you.’
‘A surprise?’ Mia’s eyes lit up. ‘Gracie! We get a surprise.’
‘Surprise!’ Gracie clapped her hands happily as she raced into the house on Mia’s heels. Dani followed them in with Malcolm following behind.
‘Upstairs to change first, both of you.’ Dani told the girls. Moments later the squeals from Mia told them both that she had found the new top they had bought for her. A pink t-shirt that had a cartoon princess on it.
‘Mommy! Daddy! Thank you! I love it! So much!’ Mia, the t-shirt already on, came running out of her room to barrel into Malcolm and hug him hard. She hugged her mother too. ‘Gracie! Did you get a surprise too?’
Gracie, giggling happily, came out of her room dragging the overalls with her and almost tripping on them. ‘Want on!’
‘You like them, Gracie?’ Dani shot a smiling look at Malcolm.
‘Change!’ She dropped onto the floor, landing with a soft thud as she tried to get her current top off. It stuck around her head and Dani came up to help her get it off.
‘Here, let me help.’ Malcolm scooped his youngest off the floor, letting her feet dangle in the air. Gracie squealed with laughter as Dani got her pull on jeans off. ‘You little terror. You’re wearing through the knees on those jeans too. Can’t stop you playing can we?’
‘Like play!’ Gracie smacked her little hands against the back of Malcolm’s large ones as he held her up. Leaning forward, he tickled his daughter’s cheek with his own slightly stubbled one. ‘Daddy! Tickles!’
Dani did up the shoulder straps on the overalls and Malcolm set his youngest daughter back on her feet. Gracie happily began to run about the upstairs in her new clothes. Her giggles were infectious and Mia was quick to start chasing her sister about too.
‘You two play nicely up here, I’ll go make dinner.’ Malcolm looked at Dani. ‘You going to stay up here too?’
‘I think I will. What do you say girls? Shall we play together while daddy makes us all dinner.’
‘Yeah!’ The girls spoke in a chorus and Dani took their hands to go into Gracie’s room. ‘What would you like to play?’
‘Doll dress up!’ Mia suggested and Gracie quickly agreed.
After dinner, the girls sat at the table while Dani and Malcolm did the tidying up.
‘Well, girls. I did say you had a surprise coming right?’
Gracie beamed. ‘Surprise good!’
‘We got our new clothes.’
‘I never said those were the surprise now did I?’ Malcolm teased the girls. ‘Come on.’ He gestured for the girls to come to the back door.
‘Daddy? What’s this?’ Mia was opening the door and leading her sister out.
‘It’s an obstacle course.’ Malcolm grinned.
‘What’s an obsacle course?’ Mia asked, struggling with the unfamiliar word.
‘Obstacle course.’ Malcolm repeated. ‘It’s a game. You run through it, getting through the challenges and get to the end successfully. You can have a go at it first, show your sister how to do it.’
‘What do I have to do?’ Mia asked, game to help her sister.
‘First, you jump over the noodles, then you weave through the croquet gates. Once you’re through those you have to knock off the bails on the wickets with the ball. Then you go up the slide and down, one swing on the swing then you have to kick the football till it hits the big ball into the hoop.’
‘I can do that!’ Mia declared. ‘Gracie! Watch what I do.’
‘Watch?’ Gracie looked a bit puzzled.
‘Let’s see what Mia does,’ Malcolm knelt beside his younger daughter. Gracie stepped closer to him, happy to hang onto his arm as he draped it around her.
‘Mia run!’ Gracie pointed at her sister as she began to run through the course. Mia easily hopped over the cut down pool noodles, weaved through the gates, knocked off the bails, ran up the slide ladder, swung a few times and then easily kicked the football against the larger ball until it was in the hula hoop.
‘I did it! I did it!’ Mia danced about with her finishing the obstacle course.
‘You want to try, Gracie?’ Malcolm asked Gracie. ‘Think you can do it like Mia?’
‘Yeah! Want run like Mia.’ Gracie pointed towards the obstacle course.
‘Go on then. Show us how well you run.’ Malcolm urged her on. Mia stood by the start of the course. Dani, watching from the deck, started recording on their video camera.
Gracie took up the challenge. She toddled as fast as she could to the first noodle and stepped over it rather than jumping. Her little arms waved about as she worked to keep her balance.
‘Jump over the last one, Gracie.’ Malcolm told her.
She stopped on the one side and then managed to jump over it.
‘Yay! You did it!’ Mia clapped loudly.
‘Yay!’ Gracie was smiling and ready to carry on.
‘Around them, Gracie. Not over them.’ Malcolm called out. ‘Ooops. You okay, little lady?’
Gracie had tripped over one of the wire gates and landed on her knees. The little girl was laughing and working on standing up again. The overall’s knees were stained with the grass from her fall. She was back to toddling quickly towards the wickets. Standing in front of the first one, Gracie reached out both hands and pushed not just the bails off but toppled the wickets over too. Dani was laughing as she filmed Gracie’s run.
Instead of using her hands on the second wicket, Gracie barreled right into to send the bails flying away. Chasing after one of them, Gracie picked it up and tried to place it back on the wicket but it was out of kilter now and nothing was going to stay on it.
‘Keep going, Gracie. Up the slide now.’ Malcolm waved her to go on.
‘Slide!’ Gracie ran on towards the slide and was soon up the short ladder and down the slide itself, hands in the air. At the bottom, she toppled forward with a laugh. The little girl skipped the slide and tried to kick the football a few times but got nowhere near it hitting against the larger ball to get into the hula hoop. The larger ball was almost half the size of Gracie and she could barely get her arms around part of it. She wound up pushing it and half-lifting it to get into the hoop.
‘You did it! Gracie! You did it!’ Mia was quick to her sister’s side to hug her in congratulations.
Malcolm came over, his sides hurting from laughing. ‘Come on, little lady. Big hugs time for you!’ He picked her up, making her fly a moment before he hauled her against him for a hug. Dani stopped filming and came over to hug them as well.
‘Fun run!’ Gracie declared, her little hands on Malcolm’s cheeks to kiss him. ‘Daddy run!’
‘You want daddy to run the course?’
‘Yeah!’ Gracie grabbed for his nose. ‘Daddy run.’
‘Mommy run too?’ Malcolm suggested, winking at Dani.
‘Mommy run!’ Gracie agreed
‘Yeah! We all should run!’ Mia suggested.
They took turns, running the course as either Malcolm or Dani filmed. Finally, Malcolm took a last run at the course, kicked the large ball too hard until it went rolling away towards the shed. He collapsed onto the ground, laughing. The girls came over to him, tumbling on top of him. Dani came over as well, filming them as she lay on the ground with them with the camera turned about to get them all or at least try too.
‘That was fun, Daddy!’ Mia declared happily.
‘It was. Did you have fun, Gracie?’
‘Yeah! Fun!’
‘Dani?’
‘It was loads of fun!’ Dani turned off the camera and hugged Mia close. ‘We’ll have to do that again some day.’
‘Now?’ Gracie asked.
‘Not now, little lady.’ Malcolm chuckled. ‘It’s bedtime for you, I think.’
‘Bath time first, I think.’ Dani said. ‘Come on, Gracie. Mia? You help daddy tidy up?’
‘I will, mommy!’ Mia agreed. ‘Get up, daddy. We have to clean up.’
‘Yes, lass. Let’s tidy up.’