And I thought I had it good at the toy store...

I love: my new job!!

Here's how the day goes:

Come to the park at 9am every morning >> hose down the concrete, go around the playground picking up garbage and looking for things that are a threat to the children's safety (eg. syringes). This is probably as bad as the job gets.
Bring the sports equipment and boxes of toys out to the playground.
Set up the arts & crafts table and practice making the craft of the day (I'm usually still waiting for the families to roll in at this point)

And as the kids and their parents/guardians stream into the park, the rest of the day is just filled with helping the kids do arts & crafts, and playing with them in the playground.

Today we also got around to playing Banana Tag, "Fruit Salad", and *Predator, Prey*. These type of run and chase games usually end when one or more of the kids fall down. Upon seeing the colour red coming from the new scrape on their knee (no matter how minor the abrasion is), they end up panicking and crying until you put a bandaid over it. Haha - oh kids.

I'm always impressed with the kids that don't cry.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays we have *storytime*!!! and soon we will have 'slip-n-slide' days because the kids really seem to dig throwing themselves on wet tarps.

I just worry about needles hiding in the grass...
I mean, we would check the grass beforehand for that kind of thing of course, but there's always the chance of us missing one buried deep in the dirt or something. *shudder*

Anyway, it's an amazing job even with the ugly parts of it, and the kids are so, so, SO cute!!!! There's a mom that comes here with her twin sons and toddler every day, and they are usually around for most of the day. They are the cutest kids, and really sweet too. They don't fight or cry or whine (much), and are just very pleasant to entertain. And there are so many more kids I would love to mention - kids that make me beam because they are just so adorable - kids that make me laugh because of their mannerisms - kids that impress me with their creativity and maturity.

And if I wasn't kiddy enough already, being around these guys all day -every day- really puts me in a different mindframe. Life becomes all about having fun and being silly and running around and laughing and pretending to be things that we really aren't.

And on top of it all, I get paid to do this - and paid well.

Wow.

I-feel-so-fortunate to be doing this. Hoorah!

Ear Candy: *Yellow Cat (slash) Red Cat* --Say Anything