Yesterday we had the absolute pleasure of getting to hang out with some sweet friends in their amazing country house. Well, sort of country house. I mean, it’s technically in Jakarta, but just far enough on the outskirts of this crazy megapolis to make it feeeeeeel like a country house.

Anyway, I was trolling for playdates during the Lebaran holiday, and one of Stella’s school friends invited us out. Boy am I glad.

Spending time outdoors with my kids is such a gift. Living, as we do, in our building attached to a mall with a grocery store and everything we could reasonably ever need all under one roof, it’s easy to spend a full day indoors without ever breathing so much as a puff of fresh air. And okay, during the rainy, flooded months of December / January / February, this is amazing. And also, every day this is amazing when I don’t have it in me to face Jakarta traffic. But still. We sometimes don’t really get outdoors. And I do hope for my urban children that they grow up knowing the feeling of grass between their toes and dirt (like earth dirt) on their knees.

We got to hang out, sitting on the grass, watching the kids chase each other up and down a little hillock, running through a sprinkler until their clothing was soaked through, and gliding down a slip n’ slide, not quite knowing exactly how the sliding part was supposed to work. And that sounds like the most banal of days, right? I mean big deal. Sprinkler running is like the basic bitch of summertime activity. But for my kids? It’s such a novelty.

Anyway, a few pictures if you're interested.

^^^ please note, while not the best picture in the world, it is sooooo illustrative of how sure Hugo is that he's a big kid. He was running at that slip n' slide like nobody's business, absolutely not scared of getting creamed by the big boys, laughing so hard he could barely stand. And I loooove that about his personality.

Playing Outside