Seven's the Charm

Chapter Five

Chapter Five

When we get home the boys play on the bounce house in the garden so I have time to cut up vegetables and mix some cornstarch, water and food colouring together; it's a paint recipe Marie recommended. The boys love to paint and colour, but washing most store bought paints out of clothes and off of little boys grubby hands isn't my favourite thing in the world. So I make my own easy-wash paint, chop up veg into different shapes and then the boys have at it on the table in here; the dining room table is strictly off limits when it comes to painting and drawing, no matter what materials they use.

“Is it ready yet, Mama?” Danny yells from outside. I smile out the window and call back that yes it is, and they can come in now. The boys troop in cheerfully, grumbling only a little when I tell them to run upstairs and change their t-shirts before they can get messy. It isn't two minutes later before they're thundering down the stairs like a herd of elephants and sitting at the table with eager, lop-sided grins. As they set about making pictures with the carrots, potatoes and broccoli I sat on the counter and called my brother.

“Hello little sis, how ya doin'?”

A smile spread across my face at Ryan's cheery tone. “Hey Ry. I'm good thanks, you all ok?”

“Yeah, we're cool. Joe that is not cool, man. Put that down.” Ry's voice was muffled but I heard my little nephew's giggles faintly. “Shit, Ree's gonna kill me.” A full blown laugh left me then as in the background I could hear my almost two year old niece, Milly, chanting his curse.

“Hey Ry?”

“Yeah?” He sighed frustratedly.

“If I were you, I'd shut up before Milly copies something else and Marie comes home.”

“Yeah.” Because I knew my brother so well, I knew that he'd be rubbing the back of his neck and frowning right about now. The thought made me laugh.

“So, the reason I called...”

“Yup, fire away sis.”

“I wondered if you and Marie wanted to come over for dinner on Sunday? Mum and Dad are going to Betty and Frank's, and Paul and Kyle are busy so I figured you guys would need feeding.” It was a long standing joke in our family that Ryan and Marie were less than good cooks, and as it had been a while since they'd come over it would be nice to feed them and amuse the kids all in one go. Ry agreed immediately, so we arranged for him and Marie to come over at around four on Friday before he had to save Joe from the washing machine or something. I didn't question and left him to it with an amused laugh.

“SNAP!” A little later dinner -inside-out cheeseburgers- was almost done, the boys had washed their hands and faces and I'd taken their clothes for washing, and they were laying on the floor of the kitchen playing snap with two packs of cards. Indie loved it when the boys got on the floor with him and was laying across Aiden's back as he occasionally reached over to pat him. The pictures that the boys had painted were all dried and stuck to the cork-board by the window. Danny's was of him dressed as a cowboy with Indie wearing a little red cowboy hat. I didn't have the heart to tell him that cowboys don't wear policeman hats even if they are one. Jake had painted the sky, using a potato cut into the shape of a star, with him as an astronaut with his brothers and me floating around him. He calmly explained that the spacemen don't do suits for dogs so Indie was looking after the ship. He seemed proud of his explanation, so I smiled and ruffled his hair. Aiden had painted our family using a regular paintbrush instead of the veg, and he'd made sure to add every detail that his four year old mind could think of. Freddie's picture was more abstract and closely resembled something of Picasso's, but it was just as beautiful as his brothers' and I told him so.