5 times extraordinary events made the McKinley-Price household feel like an ordinary family and one time they didn't.

A/N: I want one thing to be super clear. These are not extraordinary events. Not in the slightest. These are very ordinary events. The only people they seem extraordinary to are Kevin and Sean, who never believed they could have a family together. And thus, every event is extraordinary.

A quick word on names: I switched to Sean for Elder McKinley on this one. This is because I have written another story (about handcuffs! yes, I know) where I call him Sean. And since it is vitally important there is at least the possibility this and the other story could exist simultaneously, Sean's name needed to be consistent.

The names of the girls are pulled from my absolute favorite kids' album ever, Nora's Room. Ahh, nostalgia.

Okay, you didn't need to know all that. Sorry! Continue on!

Oh, wait, last thing-I have some ideas for what I want all the other events to be, but if you've got ideas for what you want to see, please please let me know!

001. Once on a flower

"Dada! Hey, Dada! Look what I got!"

Kevin Price realized now was probably the time where, as a loving, devoted, committed father of 5 years and 3 children, he should probably open his eyes.

Kevin was currently lying in his own front yard, getting an obscene amount of grass stains on his new jeans, using a newspaper to shield his eyes from the sun. There were probably more comfortable places to sit-the porch swing, or even the little swing set among them, but Kevin Price seemed to have somehow fallen asleep in the grass and was probably incapable of moving, rolling over to the side, or indulging his son in any sort of conversation.

"Dada! I got Daddy a present! See? See?"

Max McKinley-Price had taken to kicking his father gently with the toe of his foot. This did the trick his shouting had not; Kevin Price jumped to life.

"Max! We do not kick other people, you hear me? I want you to apologize-"

"Yeah, yeah, I'm sorry Dada I didn't mean to hurt you I won't do it again I'm sorry HEY LOOK WHAT I HAVE!"

Kevin sighed.

"Apology accepted, Max. What do you have?"

"I picked Daddy some flowers! Cause it's his birthday today! Do you think he'll like them? I picked them walking home from school today! See! They're all pretty'n yellow, like the sun!"

And Max thrust a handful of dandelions and buttercups into Kevin's lap.

Kevin grinned at his oldest child. "I think Daddy'll love them."

"But you haveta give them to him!"

"I do?"

"Yeah! Because giving flowers is spossed to be all romantic. So if you give them to Daddy, he'll be very happy with you!"

"I think Daddy would love them even more if they came from you, Max."

"No, no! Dada! You have to believe me! Shoshanna told me. At Church. I want you to give them!"

"Tell you what. Why don't you put these flowers in the bouquet I already bought Daddy? They're sitting on the kitchen table, and they're a surprise. Why don't you mix in your flowers with the lillies? I bet they'd look awesome together."

"Yeah! Okay!" And in another instant, Max had shot off towards the house, leaving a trail of grass clippings and mud behind him.

Kevin, as much as he would have liked to roll over and sleep, knew that he had about an hour before his husband got home from work, and the cake still needed frosting. So, grumbling, he pulled himself up from the lawn and stumbled inside after his son.

Max was careening around the living room, his younger sister Elizabeth on his back. He might have been pretending to be a rocket ship; Kevin couldn't tell. He could tell that a few more seconds of this, and Elizabeth would be lying flat on the floor with a bump on her head. Which meant, apparently, it was time for another episode of Kevin Price: Super Dad.

An hour or so later, with the cake frosted, the flowers arranged, the dinner ready and no hospital-worthy accidents on the parts of any of the children, Sean McKinley walked through the door.

He was immediately engulfed by three overly exuberant children, with Nora hanging on his legs Max jumping up and down pulling on his arms, and Elizabeth, who was far too small to walk, clutching her father's foot just a little too tightly. And Kevin found himself in the doorway, smiling indulgently and waiting his turn.

It took a good three minutes for the chorus of "happy birthday"s and "how was your day"s and "I love you daddy"s to stop, finally giving Kevin the chance to offer his own greetings.

So it was with a tiny kiss and a bigger hug and a whispered, "Happy birthday, hon. I love you," that Kevin Price managed to lead his flustered, beaming husband to the dining room, to the lillies and the buttercups and the dandelions and the pasta with the extra-special, top-secret sauce Nora had, despite Kevin's better judgement, helped him make.

(Well. She helped him stir it, at any rate. And taste test. Nora was good at that.)

"Looks delicious, love," said Sean, with another kiss to Kevin's cheek.

"You got me flowers! And... oh, look, dandelions!"

"Those are mine!" said Max proudly, before clasping his hand over his mouth. "I mean, they're mine and Dada's, and- I mean..." he trailed off.

Kevin put a gentle hand on his shoulder. "You can claim credit, Max."

"Oh! Okay! Well, the yellow flowers are mine!"

"I think they're just beautiful."

Max grinned. "I picked them myself! I'm glad you like 'em, Daddy!"

"I love them! Okay, shall we eat?"

And so they did.

And it wasn't long afterward that the cake had been devoured and the presents (yes-there were presents, much to Sean's protests) ripped open and the teeth brushed and lights turned out that Kevin Price and Sean McKinley found themselves sitting knee-to-knee on their honey-yellow backroom couch. Kevin's hand crawled across Sean's lap and found his partner's hand, which he took with a gentle squeeze.

"Hey, you. I guess that got kind of exhausting tonight, huh?"

"It was perfect."

"I think I put too many onions in the tomato sauce."

"No, really, Kevin. Perfect."

"Mmm."

"This is nice, isn't it?"

"What is? The peace and quiet? The eight o'clock bed time?"

"No. Us. I-uhh, gosh, Kevin."

"What is it?"

"You're going to make me say it?"

"I have no idea what you're trying to say, darling."

"I'm-I think-I'm in love."

"Ooh, is he a charmer? Do I get to meet him?"

"No, silly... I'm in love with this. With my life. With you and Max and Nora and Elizabeth. My job, even. Oh, gosh, Kevin, do you ever fall asleep at night thinking about how perfect we are?"

"I think about how perfect you are, sometimes."

"Shut up. I am going to have this mushy conversation with you, and you are not going to go anywhere until I'm finished. So be serious, please."

"I was being serious."

"I didn't even know a thing like this-like our family-was possible. It's kind of incredible, isn't it?"

Kevin thought for a second-about how Sean's family wouldn't talk to them anymore, about how they had searched for months and months and months to find a church that would just let them in the door, about how Max's teacher had looked at them funny when they had come in for parent-teacher conferences, about how the neighbors, after initially bringing over a lemon cake when they first moved in, never returned any of their calls.

And then Kevin thought of the Max tucked under his neon-colored bedspread upstairs, about Nora's clutter perpetually spilling over to baby Elizabeth's side of the room, about the way Sean insisted on listening to NPR and never any music, about the separate boxes of cereals he had to buy at the grocery store because no one could ever agree on anything, about how Max always forgot about his homework until last minute and somehow managed to circumvent his bedtime because of it.

And then, Kevin thought about the ring on Sean's finger, about the hugs he got every day when he picked up his kids from school, about how Elizabeth's first smile was just for him, about how when Nora decided she wanted to learn how to draw, she drew him a rose, about how Sean wore Nora's daisy chain around his neck all day, about how Sean would play baseball (T-ball, really) with Max every Saturday and always purposely miss the easiest fly balls.

And then Kevin thought a little harder, and maybe just a little too hard because he found his vision obscured by a red blob. And that red blob became a heart, and Kevin realized that, like usual, his husband was right.

"It's completely incredible. We're very lucky. How did we get to be so lucky?"

"Because, Kevin. Because we got blessed."