What My Kids Do For Fun

Because I am a proud member of the Mean Mommy Club, I do try to limit the television intake of my kids. That is not to say that they don't ever watch. I just try to make sure it is off most of the day. Some days I succeed more than others. Because of this, my children have been forced to create their own entertainment. Sometimes this works out well. Sometimes not so well.

At the moment, there seem to be three really popular games around my house.

The first one cracks me up because it is being played by the two children who live here who can't spell very well. One of them can't even read. But they insist that Hang Man is a fun game, regardless of their spelling abilities (or lack thereof).

I apologize for the poor scan quality, but this paper has been folded up and carried around the house more times than any Hang Man game should be. Notice the fingers. I wonder if every wrong answer got a finger, or if one wrong answer got the whole hand.

The next game just drives me a bit insane, because it nevah evah ends. It is called, "Mommy, if Obi Wan, Yoda, and Kit Fisto were in a fight, and they had fifty clone troopers on their side, and they were fighting against thirty droids, plus General Grievous, who do you think would win? Huh? Mommy, are you paying attention? Do you want me to tell you again?" This game is played by all three of my children, and has as many variations as there are combinations of Star Wars characters.

This is just a few of the many sticker collections around my house. Usually when this game starts, Mommy asks if there is anything good on tv.

Next is my current favorite game. This year, my kids are obsessed with March Madness. They have kept up with the brackets, the schedules, the seedings, all of it. And true to form, they have created a whole new game, called UK versus UConn. Or UK versus West Virginia. Or UK versus North Carolina. Or... well, you get the idea. Basically the kids stand on the parquet floor and toss the ball into an imaginary hoop. When they do, they cheer for UK, and give themselves a tally mark.

This is the score sheet Will kept from the UK/Duke game. (It doesn't matter that UK and Duke didn't play each other this year. They have heard the legendary stories of THE game.) In their version, UK always wins. (Please don't actually count the tally marks. It's an exercise in futility to argue with my children.)

He's Got It!

Biking

Kate has been asking to "go biking" for months. And for months I have said, "Honey, it is just too cold for biking today." But today it was about 60 degrees out, and again, "Mama? Can we go biking?" (And every. single. time. she says it I am amazed at how perfectly she says it. Wow.) I asked if it was ok for us to wait until half-time (it is March Madness, after all), and then we went out.

She rides on a big trike, kind of like a Big Wheel. I've let her try out her brother's bike with training wheels, but frankly, it doesn't go fast enough for her. She can really move on her trike.

We went to a street in the back of our neighborhood where there are only a few houses and about three blocks of wide open street. Will and Ben also came along on their bikes. My brother Jacob started teaching Ben to ride without training wheels last spring, but then he went home, and honestly, I am a terrible teacher. And what with me working and Tim being gone most of the summer, Ben never really figured it out. But he was this close.

So today we practiced his riding. Within about two minutes he was off and riding by himself. He made great progress with his balance and steering. I was so pleased, because there is a strong possibility he has my sense of coordination, which is ridiculously lacking. I plan on teaching Will this spring/summer too, and I have the same fears with him.
At one point I was holding the back of Ben's seat and giving a little push, when Kate went flying by on her trike.

As she passed, she shouted, "See ya later, chumps!"
I have no idea where she gets this stuff.

What Was on My Camera

I lost my camera earlier this winter. Whenever this happens (thankfully it hasn't happened often) I always wonder what photos may have been lost forever. I knew it happened sometime between Christmas and our mid-January vacation, so that was only about 3 weeks. I couldn't remember if there were any major events, or if I had captured a Kodak moment.

Yesterday I was loading my computer into its bag, which I hadn't used in a couple of months, apparently. When I opened one of the pockets, I found the treasure and eagerly hit the "on" button to see what was on it. I had completely forgotten about our gingerbread men. This year at Christmas, Will discovered that he really likes gingerbread, so I bought some of the easy cookie dough mix, and one night in January we rolled and cut out little men and flowers. (Evidently my cookie cutters aren't very interesting.) It took them a couple of days to decorate and eat them all, but they had a ball doing it.

We had about 10 gingerbread pics, and then there were about 65 pictures that looked a little something like this:

I think we need to work on his photography skills, don't you? Most of them were either too blurry to figure out what they were, or they showed how filthy my house it. And he captured the cuteness of his toes, but his still life leaves something to be desired:)