July 22

It was a beautiful summer day and what else is a better way to spend a summer afternoon than to have a picnic with friends?

We set everything up at the edge of the village park in an open area shaded by trees. We put out a picnic blanket and Sango and I made lunch which turned out to be a hit because everyone seemed to really enjoy it. After eating the delicious food, the kids ran around for a bit and chased Shippo around. Soon we got them to settle down and I told them the story of Little Red Riding Hood.

"And so, the woodsman knocked out the wolf and carried him deep into the forest where he wouldn't bother people any longer. Little Red Riding Hood and her Grandmother had a nice lunch and a long chat. The end."

"That's quite a story," Miroku commented afterward.

"Grandma, what big ears you have," Midori said dramatically.

"All the better to hear you with," Mieko said, pretending to hold up wolf claws.

"What big eyes you have."

"All the better to see you with, my dear."

"What big teeth you have!"

"All the better to eat you with!"

Then Shinichi roared and pretended to try to eat them.

The rest of us laughed. "You guys are some good little actors," I said to them.

"What if we put on a Little Red Riding Hood play?" Rin suggested.

Then the little ones got really excited. "Can we do that?" Midori said to their mom and dad.

"Of course," Sango said. "We can make a whole production out of it."

"Definitely!" I said. "We'll have to decide what roles you're going to play and we can make costumes and everything."

"I wanna be Little Red Riding Hood!" Midori said with excitement.

"No, I do!" Mieko protested.

"You can't!"

"Why not?"

"Because I want to!"

Sango quickly stepped in before the whole thing fell apart before it got started. "Hold on you two, don't argue over it. How about you both be Little Red Riding Hood?"

The two considered that for a moment and then they became excited again. "Okay!"

"I'll be the grandma," Rin said excitedly.

"And I can be the wolf," Shippo said.

"Me?" Shinichi said, wanting to be given a part too.

"You can be the woodcutter and save Little Red Riding Hood," I said, patting his head.

"Yay!"

"Now we have to practice our parts," Rin said. "We have to go over all of our lines and make sure everything is perfect."

"While you do that, Kagome and I will make you guys some costumes," Sango said.

"We should have a stage to perform on," Shippo said. "Plus that will give Inuyasha and Miroku something to do."

Miroku and Inuyasha had been casually observing the plan unfold but they weren't expecting to be given work to do.

"Okay, sure," Inuyasha agreed.

"Where should we set it up?" Miroku asked.

"Right here should be good," Rin said.

From there everyone got to work and that's what we spent the rest of the afternoon on. The kids were excited and we all ended up taking this very seriously for them. We decided to make a big production out of it and they'll put on the play for all of us and whoever else in the village wants to come. I love seeing the kids get excited like this. It makes me happy for them and it also makes me look forward to doing things like this for our baby.