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We took the three small cyclones to a funeral this week, sort of.

My family buried my grandmother Dewsnap’s ashes on Friday and there was a small graveside memorial which the hunky hubby and I were convinced to bring our young brood to participate in. On the one hand this kind of makes sense. Graveyards are actually fun and fascinating places to play. Lots of space and nicely clipped green grass to run on, pretty flowers abound, and not only is it fun to ask your parental unit what each and every gravestone says in its entirety, but those cool marble slabs make great stepping stones. Sweet boy #2 even found a worm in one of the flower holder things that was sunken in the ground and had accumulated some rain water.

The only problem with graveyards… no it’s not the collection of rotting flesh beneath the ground, you don’t even notice that. The only problem with graveyards is the lengthy collection of social taboos associated with them, of which young boys are completely unaware. Those great stepping stones. You guessed it, not supposed to step on them. Who knew? All the great flowers, not supposed to collect them or tear the petals off them or even rearrange them to suit your own unique mood. The grass is alright, but only if it is already firmly placed in the earth. My elderly grandfather did seem a bit put out when the boys attempted to make off with the tidy square of sod that was gently laid aside awaiting the completion of my grandmother’s planting.

But there were some great boulders off in the corner to climb on and the highlight of the trip was when my uncle got the two big boys to work together launching my grandmother’s box of ashes into the hole. It even landed face up.

In conclusion, graveyards can become a fun and entertaining destination for your next play date, I actually recall one marvelous evening playing “German Spotlight” in a small local cemetary that boasted actual headstones, but choose a time when there are not open holes or memorials in progress. Just in case you were in the midst of planning such an excersion.