The Married Life of Chad and Meg

Idina's Big Kick

Summary: Lord Tim Hudson teaches Idina how to kick a football while Chad, Meg and Kristen make a leaf collage.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Idina was playing football with Chad's friend Lord Tim Hudson.

She'd just watched him kick the ball extremely high.

"How'd you like that, Idina?" said Tim.

"Kick! Woo-hoo; kick!" Idina squealed.

"Yeah? You wanna learn how to kick a football?" said Tim.

Idina nodded then applauded as she watched Tim slide the ball down his arms.

"Alright. What you want to do is get the ball to go up, up, up and through those goal posts. Think you can do that?" said Tim.

"Kick!" said Idina.

Tim took the ball and held it on the ground.

"Okay, Idina. Let me see your best kick" he said.

Idina tried to kick, but she missed the ball and fell down with a laugh.

"Good one. Let's try it again" said Tim.

Meanwhile, Idina's sister Kristen was making a leaf collage with Meg and Chad.

"So just pick some leaves and place them on the paper" said Meg.

Kristen put two oak leaves on opposite corners of the paper and put a birch and elm leaf on the other two. For the finale, she put a maple leaf right in the middle.

"Very nice, Kristen. Now just put another piece of paper on top. Then choose your favorite color crayon and start rubbing it over the leaves" Chad explained.

"Ooh!" Kristen squealed.

She colored her oak leaves glittery gold. 

"Well done, Kristen luv" Chad cooed.

Meanwhile, Tim was still teaching Idina how to kick.

"Keep your eye on the ball, little one. And make sure you keep your toes pointed when you kick" he said.

Idina wiggled her toes and said "Kick!".

Tim laughed and said "Alright, twinkle toes. Let's try it again".

When she kicked, Idina did it perfectly, but the ball was steered in the wrong direction and landed on Kristen's collage. 

"Oh no! The leaves are crushed! Now we have to start again" said Meg.

Kristen started to cry.

"Oh, now now, Kristen. It was an accident" said Chad.

Then he picked up a stern tone and said "Idina? Did you lose something? Because I think I found it".

He gave the football back to Tim.

"Thanks for bringing our ball back, Chad" said Tim.

"Kick" said Idina.

"I'm glad you're learning how to kick, Idina sweet. But your football just ruined your sister's collage" said Chad.

Idina hung her head.

"Sorry about that. We'll try to be more careful. How about we kick the ball this way, Idina" said Tim.

"Sounds perfect. Thank you, Tim" said Chad.

"Kick" said Idina.

Chad went back to the picnic table and said to Meg "That's the last we'll see of their football".

Meg laughed and said "We got a new sheet of rubbing paper ready. And we have plenty of leaves. But we've only got one maple leaf left".

"Alright. We'll just have to be careful" said Chad.

"Cwayon" said Kristen reaching for the crayon box.

On the field...

"Okay. We should be safe if we kick it this way. Now try to get your foot underneath the ball and kick it nice and high, Idina" Tim instructed.

Idina did as she was told. 

The ball was so close to going through the goal posts, but it bounced off one of them and landed in a mud puddle.

The mud splashed onto Kristen's collage and face.

"Not again!" said Meg.

"Idina! This used to be Kristen's beautiful leaf collage" scolded Chad.

"Sorry, Chad" said Tim.

"Maybe you should go way over there" said Meg. 

Tim and Idina did as told while Kristen, Chad and Meg started the collage again.

Everything was moving like clockwork, but they'd run out of maple leaves.

"Oh no. We're out of maple leaves" said Meg.

Kristen was about to cry.

"No tears, Kristen. We're sitting under a maple tree. There should be tons of maple leaves here" said Chad soothingly.

Meg looked for some maple leaves, but none of the ones she found were exactly right. They were all either soggy, muddy or crumbly.

The best maple leaf was at the top of the maple tree. How to get it down?

Meanwhile...

"Okay, Idina. Give it all you've got" said Tim.

Idina kicked the football and it was headed for the collage.

But Meg leapt up and caught it before it could land.

"Bravo, Meg! What a catch!" said Chad.

Unable to speak to a woman older than a child, Tim just applauded.

"Yay, Mummy!" said Idina and Kristen.

"Thanks! But I really wish Idina would learn to kick this football where it's supposed to go and not on our collage" said Meg.

"Why don't you do it then, sweet? You can do it" said Chad.

Meg kicked the football upwards and caught it when it fell back down.

When she kicked it, the football hit the top of the maple tree and the new maple leaf floated down onto Kristen's collage.

"Mummy! You did it!" Kristen squealed.

She put the leaf under the paper and rubbed a red crayon over it.

"How beautiful, Kristen" said Meg.

"Well, Meg, I don't think we could have done it without that..." Chad began.

"Football!" Kristen finished.

"Kick!" Idina agreed.