Running away drama!

I have a little story to tell, a story about our 5 year old daughter who is adventerous, brave, independant, and spunky. This is a conversation I heard the other day and the events that took place afterwards.

Anna: Camden and Jadon! You are both bothering me so I'm just going to run away! ( a few minute pause).... Do you want to go with me?

Camden & Jadon: No, but we'll watch you pack. (notice how there was no talking her out of it.)

Anna: Ok then, I'll get my suitcase.

The boys sit on Anna's bed and watch her pack (I peak in her room now and then thinking they were just having some fun and it had turned into a game at this point never thinking she would actually run away.)

At this point I go on an errand taking Jadon with me and leaving Camden and Anna at home with Michael.

About 30 minutes after I left I get a call from Michael that goes like this:

M: you won't believe where your daughter is? (don't you love how he says YOUR daughter)

Me: Where?

M: She is on 22nd place pulling her suitcase behind her running away. (now just to give you a little idea of where she was at, we live on a culdesac and Anna has boundaries, she is only allowed two houses up on each side of the culdesac, she is not allowed near 22nd place which is the busy street at the end of our culdesac.) 

Me: WHAT???????

M: Yeah, I took some pictures on my phone, check your text messages. 

Me: This is what I see. (picture below)

So this picture is after Michael had summoned her home with his deep, stern and assertive voice. She had gone out of our culdesac and was heading down the street. I do wonder what the driver of the white truck was thinking.

 And here she is making the walk home to have a little talking to. The white mailbox you see in front of her is where she is not allowed past.

 She got a suitcase for Christmas, maybe she was just excited about using it? I will give her credit for how well prepared she was, she had her pillow, two flashlights, and some toys to sell so she could have money to buy food from a restraunt. Not bad for a 5 year old!

This happened in the late afternoon and we decided to talk with her at dinner about what she had done, after Michael and I were able to get all our giggles out because of course she couldn't see us laughing at what she had done or it would become a daily event. So after we pulled ourselves together and were being the mature and serious parents that we should be in an event like this, we were able to have a conversation about her running away. She listened, we talked, we put some fear into her about how dangerous it was to go past her boundaries, also reminding her about how much she would be missed if she ran away. And then we finally got to ask her what her plan was and where she was planning on going on her little adventure. Her answer, she hadn't really thought about it and probably would have turned around at the next stop sign. That's all we got.