Langreck: Through a child’s eyes

After going through a few weeks of snow, snow and more snow, along with freezing temperatures, Mother Nature has finally graced Indiana with some beautiful weather and sunshine.

My kids have been taking advantage of the gorgeous weather all week by going outside and playing when they get home from school — after their homework is done, of course.

I have had to stay inside some of the times they played outside because I was working or had to stay indoors with the youngest one. However, the kids know to stay within a certain distance of the house and to check-in every so often.

Avery and Olivia, who are 5 and 7 years old, respectively, like to play house when they are outside, and after they came in from playing outside earlier this week, I noticed they had left a pile of pinecones on the front porch.

When I first saw them, I actually thought it was funny, and it reminded me of the days I used to collect pinecones from under the big pine tree at my parent’s house after school with one of my best friends.

We would always imagine the pinecones were something different, but usually they were pretend food for the restaurant we ran out of the playhouse by the swing set.

After taking a trip down memory lane, I began to realize that when our dog came back in from outside she brought in a dried up dandelion. I didn’t think much of it, but then when I went out to tell them it was time to come in for dinner, I realized there were pine needles, dried up weeds, pinecones and leaves from the bush all over the entire porch and the walkway.

As I called my fiancé over to come see what the girls had done, I had to stifle down a laugh, and so did he. Upon furtherer inspection we realized that they had covered the entire driveway with pine needles.

We explained to the girls why they couldn’t do that because it hurt the trees and they wouldn’t be able to grow back. As Avery and I picked up handfuls of pine needles, she explained to me that she and Olivia just wanted to make “soup” and share it with everyone.

My mind immediately went back to the days of making pinecone “burgers” with my friend, and I couldn’t help but smile at Avery and give her a hug as I finished helping her clean up.

It was refreshing and enjoyable to remember my youthful days and not having a care in the world, which I was glad I was able to see my children have the opportunity to do, as well.