Lost

I was helping at the church this morning to feed a bunch of people at a missionary Zone Conference. James and Matthew came along (Alice and Robert are enjoying Arts Camp this week. Woo hoo!). After the lunch was done and people were cleaning up all over, I suddenly realized I hadn't seen James for some time. My friend turns to me and says, "Have you seen B*?" Um, no. Both boys were missing. We checked the halls, the classrooms, the stage, the chapel, and even outside. Twice. No kids. Then we realized another toddler had gone missing as well.

Three whole kids just vanished! I started to panic a little. Then on my next sweep of the church building, I hear little voices coming from behind the closed door of the Mother's Lounge. Shouting, happy, giggling voices. I open the door and it crashes into one of those wheeled carts from the kitchen.

WHAT?!

I see three little toddler/preschoolers [James (2), B (3), and J* (2)] dancing on a pile of plastic silverware they had dumped off of the cart. James had a handful of plastic knives and he was swinging them around and making slashing sounds. The kids suddenly stopped and looked up at me. B says "What a BIG mess!"

You bet.

Apparently, they had the awesome idea to use the kitchen cart as a car. B had pushed James and J down the hall all the way to the other side of the church where they found the Mother's Lounge with its rocking chairs and closing door (James loves closing doors at the church. Don't really understand why.) and they decided to have a plasticware dance party and knife slash fest.

We had them clean up the mess and B "drove" the other two all the way back to the kitchen. James and J just laid on their bellies on the bottom shelf of the cart. I was surprised by B's strength and skill with the now heavy kitchen cart. It didn't take long to get back. I can see how the whole adventure evolved so easily.

Gotta keep my eye on this little James-y man.

*Name abbreviated to protect the innocent :)