Little Annie groaned in annoyance as she colored in her coloring book, pausing every so often to look at the clock on the mantle. She wished she knew how to tell time so she'd know how much longer she had to wait until Mommy came to pick her up. She was bored spending all day at her babysitters. The lady spend the whole day watching boring 'soap operas' on television (Annie didn't understand why they were called that when she never saw any soap on them). Annie liked it when she went to school and only was at her sitter's for a little while in the afternoon. But it was winter break, and she had off from school for the week. And all of her friends in kindergarten didn't live in her neighborhood, so she had no one to play with during the day.

Annie looked out the front window as she saw her mom's car pull into the driveway. She quickly packed up her crayons and toys, feeling very gleeful that Mommy was finally back from work. She waited as her mom came in and talked to Ms. Corbet before it was finally time to go.

"Come on Annie, get in the car," her mother said in a tired voice.

"Can we play hide and go seek?"

"Annie, I'm tired. I just want to rest when we get home."

Annie moaned in disappointment as she got in the back seat and buckled up. She waited until mommy pulled out of Ms. Corbet's driveway and started driving home before asking, "Can we play freeze tag when we get home?"

"Annie, Mommy had a long day. I just want to relax, all right."

"Can we play tea party? That's just sitting and drinking tea," Annie said hopefully.

"Annie, no."

Annie sat there in the back before a great idea came to her. "I can put on a dance show and you can watch?"

"No Annie, I just want to lie down when we get home."

"But Mommy-."

"Annie, can you stop being difficult!" her mother yelled at her.

"I just want to play," Annie said sadly.

"Well I just want to relax after a difficult day at work. And I'm the grown up, so that's what I'm going to do. You can play by yourself when we get home, but do it quietly. Understand."

"Yes," Annie said in a small voice, knowing from her mother's tone that she'd be in real trouble if she said anything else.

When they got home Annie's mom went to her room and closed the door, leaving little Annie by herself. She cried as she went to her own room and started playing with her stuffed animals. All she wanted was to play with Mommy. She had waited all day for Mommy to come home from her job so they could play. But her mom didn't want to play with her. All Mommy wanted to do was to spend time by herself.

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Annie yawned loudly as she drove home. It was times like this she wished she worked a later shift. But she had purposely taken the 7am-3pm shift so she could see Hazel and Zackary in the afternoon. Being able to spend time with her children was worth the loss of a little sleep.

Annie pulled into the driveway and got out of the car. We really need to do something about the bushes in the front, Annie thought as she walked up to the house. They were so bushy that they were starting to become tangled together.

"Mommy!" she heard as she opened the door. She smiled as Zack ran towards her and hugged her tightly. She bent down and scooped up the smiling four year old.

"Hey. How's Mommy's little boy doing?"

"Great!"

"Hi Mommy!" Hazel said as she also ran forward.

"Hi Hazel." Annie smiled at the six year old before looking at their sitter, Ms. Kensington. "Hi Martha."

"Hello Anne."

"How were the kids?" she asked.

"Oh, they were little angels, like always. I wish my children had been that well behaved when they were growing up. I'll see you two tomorrow," she said as she hugged the two kids before setting on her way.

"Mommy, can we go to the park?" Hazel asked hopefully.

"Yeah. Park, park!" Zack said excitedly.

Annie tried to hide another yawn as she thought about it. After today she was tired, and would like to liedown and relax. But as she looked down at her children's hopeful faces, she didn't have the heart to tell them no.

"Yes, we can do to the park. Let me just change and then we'll go."

XXXXXXXXXXXX

"Okay, you have to the count of ten before I come get you. One, two…"

Annie counted as she held her hands over her eyes, while keeping her fingers opened slightly so she could keep an eye on Hazel and Zack while they hid. She smiled as she saw Zack tuck himself into a ball and hide behind a tree. With his bright orange jacket he stood out prominently despite his best hiding efforts.

"Eight, nine, ten. Ready or not, here I come!"

She dramatically skulked forward, looking around as if she had no idea where her children were. "Where's Zack? Where's Hazel?" She smiled as she walked past a bush and heard her daughter giggling. "Oh no. I can't find Hazel anywhere. Maybe she went to live with a family of bears. I'll just have to keep looking for her."

Hazel giggled as she saw Mommy's feet move away from the bush she was hiding under. She then crawled back in surprise as her mom bend down and stuck her face in the bush. "Got you."

"You have to catch me first." She tried crawling out from the bush, but wasn't fast enough as her mom grabbed the back of her shirt."

"There, you're caught. Now let's find your brother."

They both looked around the park (with Annie not revealing that she already knew where Zack was hiding) before Hazel yelled "I found him. I win."

"I hid longer. I win," Zack yelled.

"No one wins in hide and seek," Annie told them. "It's just a game you play for fun."

"Can we play choo choo train!" Zack asked.

"Okay, sure. I'll be the engine and you two are the cars behind me." Annie got on her hands and knees, ignoring that she would probably have grass stains on the knees of her jeans before the day was over. She waited until Hazel grabbed hold of her ankles and Zack grabbed hold of Hazel's ankles. "Okay everyone, where should the Winger family train go today?"

"Australia!" Hazel yelled.

"Okay, Australia it is. All aboard! And we're off!" Annie yelled as she crawled forward, going slow enough so her kids could keep up. "Look at all the wonderful sights as we speed through the Australian planes. Oh look, off into the distance, there's a koala bear. And over there is a family of kangaroos."

"I wanna see rhinos!" Zack yelled.

"Oh look, a rhino has unexpectedly turned up in Australia," Annie quickly said, glad her days of living with Troy and Abed taught her how to quickly improvise. "He's very confused since he's not in Africa."

They played choo choo train for a while longer, during which they traveled out of Australia and went to Africa to bring the wayward rhino home, and then went to Egypt to see the pyramids. Finally Annie stopped and got to her feet. "Okay, that's enough choo choo train for today."

"Can we go on the swings?" Zack asked.

"Okay. We'll go on the swing, but then we have to go home, deal?"

"Deal!"

XXXXXXXXXXXX

"Hello," Jeff said as he opened the door. "Annie?"

"Shhh," Hazel said as she ran towards her dad. "Mommy's asleep."

"Mommy's asleep?" Jeff playfully asked as he squatted down and kissed his daughter.

"Yeah. She took us to the park and fell asleep when we got home. So we have to be quiet."

"Okay, I'll be quiet. Where's your brother?"

"In the play room. We're watching A Bugs Life."

"Why don't you go back to watching the movie and I'll check on mommy."

"You're not going to wake her up, are you daddy? She was really tired when we got back," Hazel said as her eyes widened with worry.

"I promise I won't wake up Mommy Hazel."

"Cross your heart?"

"Cross my heart," Jeff said seriously as he made an X over his heart. He got up and said hi to Zack before going upstairs to his bedroom, where Annie was fast asleep. She was lying on top of the bed spread, her cheek pillowed into her hands.

Jeff picked up a blanket that was at the foot of the bed and draped it over his wife. He bent down and kissed her lightly on her lips, careful not to wake her up. She stirred slightly, but resumed sleeping. He chuckled before he went to change, trying to decide if he should make spaghetti and meatballs or baked chicken for dinner.