The Adventures of Elaine - The Family Picnic

The Morning

Elaine could hear her mother's alarm clock go off, and the disgruntled murmuring of her dad going back to sleep. She could hear her mother's not-so-quiet footsteps down the stairs to make coffee. She counted exactly five seconds before the twins rushed past her bedroom, down the stairs and into the lounge, fighting for the remote. In the end, it wouldn't matter who won, because at seven o'clock in the morning the only kids' channel on was The Rambunctious Kids.

She sighed and got up. The twins were Tim and Ted, 12 years old, and very excitable. Elaine was nine, considered above average for her age; she also loved reading. Elaine shared the room with her sister Stacy, who was 14. To Stacy, nothing mattered until she looked good; her makeup, her hair and her outfit were always on top of the priority list. The kids' mum Jena, currently drinking her way through her second cup of coffee, was the head of the family. Roger, the dad of the family, was a heavy sleeper. He was known to sleep through five alarms, often causing him to be late to his morning meetings. No one really cared if he was late though, everyone was half asleep halfway through the meeting; either the fact that it was early in the morning, or that the meetings were boring as a plain white wall in a plain white house with plain white windows; or both, but Roger figured he wouldn't miss much. However, today was Saturday, and as the kids called it, "The Day of Relaxation", was for having fun.

This Saturday, mum had decided they would go to the park to enjoy this  "Day of Relaxation" and have a nice picnic. She was aware of the daunting task of getting the kids into the car, the sandwiches done, and getting to the park before it was closed. But she knew she couldn't do it alone. You see, the Lindsay family could never just go somewhere. Oh no, there was a whole lot of planning, squabbling and delays. That is why she called dad to come down and make the sandwiches. It took at least half an hour and two more cups of coffee but eventually he looked ready to get some lunch prepared.