The Park on Sunday morning - picnic.

[hernando_fuentes]

The puddle of children had woken in the morning and asked to go to the park. After feeding them - and shooing the teenager out of his kitchen so he could have the privilege of making breakfast - Hernando walked them all to the park.

The children knew the way and it wasn't that Hernando was any sort of helicopter parent except yes, perhaps today a little bit, he was. Sparkle was making a quick dash into town to put a 'closed today on account of children' sign on the door of his store but planned to join them later.

Hernando had packed an entire antique picnic basket full of food and snacks and put Quinn to work hauling a rolling cooler behind them. The children had acted as if this were a usual thing and that made Hernando smile a bit. Abney was wearing the folded picnic blanket as a superhero cape and was running ahead with her arms out, making zooming plane noises.

There was way more food than the children would need, even if one was a growing teenager. To his rueful chagrin, Hernando found that the store had decided to help when he spread the blanket out and began to unpack. The basket never seemed to empty. He set out only enough plates of sandwiches and baskets of fruit for the moment and let the children go run. There were thermoses of tea and sodas and waters in the cooler as well.

Once free of her superhero cape, Abney lead the way to the playground and commenced burning off the energy. Quinn was more interested in reading a book but he, too, occasionally joined his sister in playing.

[Open park with picnic food! Come let the kids play together!]

Comments

[usual_suspects]

"Oh! I've seen Earth cats," Marshan said, nodding. "We could go see them, though! I like animals."

[forever_family]

"I'll see if Papa will take us over after the picnic," Abney said with a grin, "You'll like the kitties there. They also have puppies and they let you play with 'em! I like animals too but we can only have the one cat for now. She only likes people, not other cats and she's scared of dogs. She likes the quokka ok, they snuggle but don't try to play with her. She's old."

[usual_suspects]

"Some of the folks at home have akk dogs, and one of Daddy's friends has a tuk'ata, but mostly there's not a lot of animals at home," Marshan said. "What's a quokka?"

[forever_family]

"What's a tuk'ata?" Abney wondered in return. "Quokka are small fuzzy .. hm. Imagine a fuzzy Gizka? Only not lizard underneath but a mammal. They kinda look like that."

[usual_suspects]

"They sound amazing!" Marshan gushed. "Um. A tuk'ata is a big hound and all spiny with really big teeth, and they're really smart!"

[forever_family]

Abney giggled. "They sound awesome! Kind of like varren. Are they big enough you could ride one?"

[usual_suspects]

Marshan grinned. "I maybe could right now, but a grownup couldn't. I don't think they'd let me, though."

The tuk'ata or its owner, probably.

[forever_family]

"Sometimes I think adults forget how to have any fun," Abney said, "Do you have riding animals? There are horses at the stable here but you can only really ride them in the preserve. Everywhere else has too steep hills."

[usual_suspects]

"Not at home," Marshan said. "But sometimes when we visit people on other planets, they do. I've never ridden a horse, though."

[forever_family]

"We're not big enough to ride the ones here on our own," Abney said, pouting just a tinnnny bit, "Need to ride with an adult cuz we're too short to reach the stirrups. We don't get to go to many other planets. Do you go to other planets lots? We don't. Only sometimes, when Dada goes to Coruscant or when Aunt Jack or Uncle Kaidan visit Tuchanka, mostly."

[usual_suspects]

"Not a lot, but sometimes," Marshan said. "Coruscant and Dromund Kaas and Zakuul, mostly. Voss sometimes, or other places. I don't get to do much, though."

[forever_family]

"Waaaayyy more planets than we get to go to," Abney said, "Coruscant's the same but we don't get to do much either. Mostly we play with the Padawans but we don't have Force. Quinn and me don't, I mean, so we have to teach them regular kid games instead."

[usual_suspects]

"What other games?" Marshan asked.

[forever_family]

"Tag, where someone is the tagger and has to pass it on to someone else by chasing them and touching them with only their regular feet and no Force involved," Abney said cheerfully, "Or hopscotch, which is jumping on a numbered set of squares with only one foot. Jumping rope is fun. Sometimes games with boards and pieces and sometimes cards. Do you play games back home? Are there lots of kids where you are or not so many?"

[usual_suspects]

"Not so many," Marshan said. "There's some older kids, but only a few as old as me. Mommy's teaching me dejarik, and I watch the grown-ups play pazaak and sabacc sometimes, and we have tag! And hide-and-hunt."