We’d had plans to go to another pumpkin festival today — one a little further away, about an hour outside the city, in Retz.  (We went last year and really enjoyed it.)  But, the weather was too unpleasant to spend the day outside.  So, we changed our plans from looking at pumpkins to hanging out with friends.

That still required going out in the weather, though, so we got the boys suited up in rain coats and boots and ventured out.  As soon as we got down to the courtyard, the boys galloped out over the cobblestones and started splashing enthusiastically in puddles.  The stomped and they jumped, in little puddles and in big ones, and they splashed water all around.  We met up with a neighbor and while we adults were chatting with him, we let the kids play.  Every time someone would walk by, they’d take a break from their splashing so it didn’t get any unsuspecting passersby soaked, too.

They went on like this for a few minutes, so that by the time we were 20 yards from our front door and had been out of the house for about 10 minutes, they had redistributed much of the accumulated water in our courtyard (and Liam had fallen down twice).  They were happy, though, and not too wet, and it was remarkable how unsatisfied they were by their long moments jumping in puddles — Liam insisted on stomping through or jumping into every puddle on the way from our building to the train station.

As much as I was a little disappointed to miss all of the pumpkin fun in Retz this year, I was glad to have my little guys stay mostly dry and warm today, other than getting themselves wet by choice, emptying every puddle in their path.