A/N: Let the fun begin! It's taken us all summer to get here, but it's here!
Enjoy!
Summer vacation had begun! The kids had just had their pre-school graduation complete with caps and gowns for the class of twenty-six four and five year olds. They had sung songs and their teachers had given speeches before each child in the graduating class got their own diploma: rolled up and tied with a red or blue ribbon.
After a celebratory lunch at Remy's, Kate headed back to work, and Castle had taken his kids home to play for a little while and hopefully take a nap. Of course his kids were much too old for a nap; naps were for babies. However they were not too old to have 'rest time,' which more times than not ends up with one or more of the kids falling asleep.
Rick sits in his office, replying to e-mails while his kids play in the backyard. He clicks send on the final message and stands up. He pushes his shoulder blades together, stretching the muscles that were getting stiff from sitting all day.
He walks to the windows of his office and can see the kids playing: Miyana and Finn are at the playhouse with their baby dolls; Liam and Austin are playing with their cars in the dirt under the swing set; and Danielle is standing at the top of the slide, hanging onto the cross bar, getting ready to slide down.
"Alright, time to come inside," He says through the window screen a few moments later.
"Five more minutes!" Austin calls back to him.
He shakes his head, "No more minutes; it's time to come inside." He leaves the window and moves out of his office and into the great room to make sure his kids don't slam the back door, which they like to do, even though they have been told a hundred times not too.
Defeated, the kids troop inside, making a beeline to the kitchen for a drink. It's hot outside and Castle can see sweat tuning the boys' hairline a darker shade of brown; definitely time for them to come inside.
After they finish their drink and all the cups are back on the counter, Castle sends all of the kids to their spots for rest time. He and Kate have learned over the years that keeping the kids together during naps is a recipe for disaster. Now, most of the time, the kids are in separate rooms.
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With all five kids finally in bed resting, Castle can get some things done. They are leaving for their trip in less than five days and there is still a long list of things to be done.
He changes out the laundry, putting a dry load onto the table to be folded and put away; he adds a dryer sheet to the next load going in and turns it on. Rick works on folding the clothes, putting them in piles according to which room they go too, before getting distracted and leaving the room, and the half-folded pile of clothes.
He scampers down the basement stairs, passes by Liam who is laying on the couch, half asleep, a movie playing on TV, a water bottle next to him. He goes into the unfinished storage room and trips over a box of Memorial Day decorations and things he was supposed to put away last week. Oops. He reaches up to the second highest shelf and pulls down their two sets of suitcases. As he's carrying them back upstairs, Liam sits up and looks at him for a minute before lying down again, sure that everything is alright.
Back upstairs, he sets the suitcases right in front of the stairs going up to the second floor before going back to the laundry he had left.
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"Austin Michael! Liam Roy!" Kate calls over the balcony into the living room where her kids are playing Super Mario on the Wii; the boys look up at her, mad their mom distracted their game. "Come up here, please," she tells them then turns back to her bedroom.
She shakes her head at the open suitcases on the master bedroom floor. The ones she had to carry upstairs after tripping over them when she got home from work earlier that evening. The ones she specifically asked her husband to bring into their room so she could start packing for their trip.
One of the open bags was already filing up with her and Castle's clothes. It was just basic things: underwear, socks, and some workout clothes; she was still pulling out things from her closet, trying to decide what to bring.
The other two lay empty, but are about to get filled up once the boys got upstairs.
Kate hears her sons before she sees them; racing each other to see who can get to mommy and daddy's room the fastest. Liam reaches the room first and he jumps onto the bed, messing up the pile of clothes Kate had neatly set their minutes before. Austin follows his twin and together both boys roll over the bed, giggling and messing up everything in their path.
Kate laughs at them, ignoring the fact that those shirts and shorts are all wrinkled now and her hard work mostly went to waste.
"Alright, alright," she laughs, grabbing onto their ankles causing the twins to laugh even more. The wiggling stops and both boys lean over the edge of the bed to look at her. From this angle with their matching dimples and pairs of dark blue eyes, they look so much like their dad that it starts to scare her a bit.
"Ok, I need you to do a job for me," she says after a minute. The boys sit up, eager to help. "I need one of you to go into your room and grab the white hamper in your closet and the other of you go get the hamper in your sisters' room; can you do that?"
"Yup," they say, sliding off the bed and taking off out of the room again.
While the boys are off on their job, she goes into her bathroom to start packing her makeup and toiletries. She only packs the bare essentials for their week in Florida; this is Disney World, not Fashion Week, simple face and eye makeup is all she'll need for most of the days, though she does throw in a tube of her favorite red lipstick to wear on the 'fancier' night Castle had planned for one night that week.
Fancy night!
Need a nicer dress.
The thought comes to her mind and she runs into her closet before she forgets. She thumbs through her dresses and decides on the black one she wore to Ryan and Jenny's son, Kieran's, baptism: mid length, one shouldered, hugs her curves and flares out at her waist. She loves it and knows Castle does too.
"Mommy!" A voice calls out to her and she leaves the closet, dress in hand. "The boys were in our room," Danielle announces to her, standing in front of the bed.
"I know; I told them too," Kate says, quelling the fight that was going to arise. The boys aren't allowed into the girls' room without permission, and vice versa for the girls. She lays the dress on her bed, smoothing out the material.
"Oh," Dani says, her brow furrowing as though the thought of her mom giving her brothers permission to get into her bedroom is the craziest thing she's ever heard. "That's pretty," Danielle says, walking over and running her hands on the back dress, loving the feel of the satin material on her fingers.
"It is pretty, isn't it?" Kate asks, watching her daughter touch her dress and smile at it. "Do you remember when I wore this dress last time?"
"Uh-huh, we were at church with Uncle Kevin and Aunt Jenny and Tio and Nani and Gracie and Kieran," Dani says happily, recalling the event nearly three years before.
"That's right," Kate smiles. "Do you think this is a good choice to bring with us to Florida? Daddy is taking me out one night for dinner and I was thinking of bringing this one."
Is she really asking her five year-old daughter for fashion advice?
"Yup it's a good one," Danielle sighs. "You look pretty in it."
Apparently she is.
A loud crash has Kate turning away from Danielle and the dress to her bedroom door faster than a bolt of lightning.
Austin is pushing himself off the floor; the hamper he was dragging behind him sits wedged in the doorway, on its side, between him and Liam, who is dragging his own hamper.
"Are you alright?" she asks.
Austin looks up and starts crying; big crocodile tears that make thick tracks down his cheeks. Kate scoops him up and carries him over to the chairs that sit in front of the windows.
"Momma, I didn't mean too!" Liam calls, repeating it as he follows his mom and twin. "Momma I-"
"I heard you Liam," Kate says to him, a little more forcefully than she should have, because Liam's face breaks and he runs from her room, starting to cry. Austin is still in her lap, though his tears have stopped. No damage that Kate can see; just a bruised ego.
Danielle had left the same time Liam did; probably afraid of getting yelled at too.
"What's with the tears, buddy? Huh? It really isn't that bad," Kate asks her youngest son, wiping the hair off his face.
"We was racing and I hit the door and everything spilled," Austin sniffles after a minute.
"Is that all?" Kate chuckles. "That's nothing," She waves a hand to show her son how unimportant a basket of spilled clothes was. "Come on; help me finish packing up so we can go get dessert." Kate stands, her son sliding to the floor and scampering to his overturned laundry basket and the one behind it that Liam abandoned.
They slide both baskets over to the open suitcases, and with a bit of teamwork, and a lot of rearranging, both the girls' and boys' suitcases were filled and standing in a corner ready for their trip in a few days. Unfortunately the kids costumes: princess dresses, Sheriff Woody, Buzz Lightyear, and a few others couldn't fit in the kids' bag and had to be put into their own suitcase. At least it weighed less than fifty pounds.
"Good job, Austin," Kate cheers, slapping five with her youngest son. The kindergartener smiles, jumping to slap his mom's hand again.
"We did good, huh?" Austin asks his mom.
"We did," she nods. "Thanks for all your help," she says palming the back of his head and leading them both out of the room and down the hall. "Ready?" Kate asks, meeting Castle halfway down the stairs as he comes up.
"Yeah," he nods. "Mia and Nemo are in the car," he relays, passing his wife and son on the stairs, heading to look for the final two kids.
"We'll meet you there," Kate calls, finishing the stairs and heading to the garage, grabbing a sweatshirt on her way out just in case anyone needed it.
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"Uh yeah, she'll have a kids' scoop of 'Reese's Peanut Butter Cup in a sugar cone, please," Kate says to the college student behind the display case. Once the ice cream cone is finished and passed over the glass, Kate hands it to its recipient before taking the final three steps to the cash register.
"Is that everything?" The young girl asks, adding the final cone to their total.
"Yeah, I think so," Kate nods, slurping up a melting drip off her waffle cone of Rocky Road and Cherries Jubilee.
"Alright," The casher does some quick math, "you total is twenty one- forty five."
"Oh. Really?" Kate asks, surprised. It usually costs a bit more than that.
"Yeah. I took off one of the kids' cones because you bought three, so you get one free. And then I worked a bit of magic," she smirks, getting Kate a better deal for their treat.
"Wow! Thank you," Kate smiles. She slides her debit card and pays the bill, adding a nice tip for the girl.
"You're very welcome. Have a nice night," the girl says, smiling.
Kate grabs a wad of extra napkins before joining her family out on the patio where they had claimed a section of the picnic tables that covered the fenced off area. The store had gotten quite busy since they first arrived, and Kate was eager to get out of there as soon as possible; large crowds in tight spaces sill made her a bit wary. But out in the open patio, she took a few breaths and was perfectly fine after a minute.
The kids were enjoying their dessert: stealing bites of their siblings' flavors, talking with each other and friends from school they had run into, and not fighting for once.
As Kate finishes her cone, just as she stuffs the last bite into her mouth, her cell phone rings. She wipes off her fingers before slipping it from her pocket.
"Hey dad!" She calls, mouth still full. Kate chews quickly as her dad laugh on the other line.
"Hey, Katie!" Jim replies.
"Hey, dad? Hold on one second," Kate sets the phone on her chest, and calls to her kids. "It's Papa, come here." The five scamper over, eager to talk to their grandfather and show him the surprise they had prepared. "Dad? I'm going to put you on speaker; the kids have something they want to tell you." Kate puts the phone on speaker and quietly counts down her kids.
On 'three' they all scream into the cell phone: "Happy birthday, Poppa!"
Jim laughs again; bright and happy. "Thank you," he says to all of his grandchildren.
"Dad?" Kate asks, putting the phone back to her ear as the kids disperse again. "Did you like it?"
"It was great, Katie, just great!" Jim responds.
"Good, I'm glad you like it. The kids have been practicing all day," she laughs.
"I'm sure they have," Jim nods. "Listen, Katie. I know it's pretty last minute, but I was hoping there would be some way to add me onto your Disney trip?"
"I thought you had to work," Kate asks, her brow furrowing.
"So did I," Jim agrees. "But I got the call as I was leaving my office today; they don't need me after all.
Kate gasps, and Castle looks up at her, questions written all over his face.
"Dad! That's fantastic! You know what, don't worry about anything; we'll find a way to add you."
"Katie, I don't to cause too much trouble."
"Dad, you are never trouble! Like I said: don't worry; we'll work it out. I'll call you tomorrow, okay?"
"Alright; talk then. Love you, Katie."
"Love you too. Bye," Kate hangs up, a smile covering her face.
"What happened?" Castle questions, leaning towards her.
"My dad just got called about work. Apparently they don't need him next week and he was hoping we could squeeze him in on our trip. We can, can't we?"
"Of course we can!" Castle smiles, nodding his head. "I'll set it up when we get home."
"Great," Kate says, leaning over the table to kiss her husband.
And when Kate calls her dad back the next morning, everything has been set up; Jim is all set to come with his family to Disney World.