Pure innocence in a game of hide and seek ...

Willow has taken to wanting us all to play hide and seek together. 

She loves it.

With Ava, Dakota and Farrah all in agreement while down in the goat paddock, I was nominated to count and find them.

First hidey place was a rock.  It was half Ava's size and each girl on a different side of the rock like four petals on a flower.  Heads were down next to the rock, eyes in hands and bottoms up in the air.

Willow kept calling instructions to me, 'You have to count', so I'd count louder.  'You can't look danella', so I didn't, which only made her call louder so I would look and she could see me look while she gave he instruction and would know I'd heard her.

As I went searching and stopped right near where they were all looking very gorgeous and sure they couldn't be seen, a giggle would happen, then another and another and a sudden burst of 'Here we are!'

As we played, three little girls nearby stopped to watch.  One of them started to give me instructions too, 'You have to count louder', 'Don't look' ... and they were joined by two more.

Soon all children nearby abandoned what they were doing and joined our little gang of four.

Off they ran together, all watching to see if I would count and they could 'hide'.

This was all very sudden and spontaneous and the children quite in wonder of each other and the game and this grown up who was letting them do it.

... and for me, I was watching our gang swell in number to about fifteen! 

All the mums, (no disrespect intended), were oblivious to the magic unfolding and the fact all children had wandered off.

Quite suddenly they noticed their children weren't right with them and rounded their children up without even noticing what was really going on ... our little game then continued ...

As the children innocently played, I had a lot of laughs ... they ran into the goat shelter, called out to me so they knew I knew where they were and so they could keep calling instructions for me to play the game well. 

As soon as I'd reassure them I'd 'got it', the call would come, 'Well don't look'.  I'd turn away and then go through the motion of not knowing where they were and eventually finding them.

All the while, their joy and innocence was loud and not knowing  that they were totally obvious all the time wasn't within their awareness at all ...

How innocent, how sweet and how very much fun it was ...