imaginative play

Priya, Sam and Anneka will play outside with imaginative games for hours. But they don't imagine their props. The props have to be real.

Just now, I looked out to see Sam pulling the green garden wagon loaded with two bikes and one Anneka through the ditch. Priya was pushing.

Since we don't have a real horse to hitch to a wagon, they snag Molly the dog and hitch her to the green garden wagon with twine strings. Sometimes Molly is a horse to ride. Dogs don't carry people, even small people on their backs. But she endures it until she has a chance to get away.

Here in the house, toys are rarely played with as they are intended. And any stack of Ellie's blankets become articles of clothing held together with safety pins on Priya. And give Sam a roll of scotch tape and cardboard and he's happy for a long while.

But as I say that toys are not generally used as playthings around here, the kids just resurrected a few of their toys hiding down in the basement and all four of them played for a solid hour, uninterrupted by requests for snacks or fights.

Perhaps they will all require a couch and therapy in a few years. The root cause no doubt will come down to their parents who didn't provide proper direction and play things to satisfy some part of their development. But I guess that's a risk I'm willing to take.

There aren't very many years that kids are allowed to pretend and be truly imaginative. Soon it will be real life.

hot weather, small bladders and Minnesota camping

Uncle John won the prize for the favorite uncle on this trip (also the only uncle) for holding sweaty little hands for much of our hike, patiently explaining many mysteries of nature to inquiring minds and entertaining the hot sweaty little urchins with rousing games of hide-and-seek around our campsite at opportune times

Anneka walked lots of the way through our 2-1/2 hour hike through Flandrau State Park, enjoying flowers but not the grass on some of the trail that "itchy's"...it was then that her mother carried her...

Aunt Janet explains some mysteries of science to the three, all the while keeping them from falling into the river...
Mark and Ellie sweated to the 90s..err...rather sweated in the 90 degree heat with the help of the Sleepy Wrap, which actually helped Ellie to sleep for part of our hike. And despite the cramped accommodations and the shower rules, the weekend included much heat, lots of water drinking, lots of trips to the outhouse, hiking, [trying not to] pick up infectious diseases at the packed swimming hole, good camp food, lots of conversation and small interruptions...

country cousins, city cousin

At the end of the afternoon, Emma, the cousin from California, has seen one dead mouse, one dead lamb, climbed to the haymow, hitched the dog to the Radio Flyer wagon to play pioneers in addition to a few other wild country hick children activities that her mother may not forgive us for introducing to her.

posing

Since they sort of look like biker shorts, Sam assumes it's normal to run around in his underwear. Except he doesn't ride bike to the extent of wearing biking attire. He even had a conversation with our neighbor lady in them. I was not in on this conversation and I did not necessarily approve of his attire for such conversation.

To avoid getting lost in the shuffle of second-hand passed-down items, Anneka got a bike of her own for her third birthday from Grandma and Grandpa.

One of the five bunnies that had made it three weeks now.

birthday

Ellie has two new teeth to celebrate...

And in honor of three years, we celebrated twice. With banana butterfly cupcakes the night before. With raspberry pie the night of. And the candle sat just fine right in the pie while she blew it out.

fads

A really old person would recognize a pattern and even a person with more than a few decades under their belt would note some repetition.

Here are a handful of current fads I've noticed lately:

1. tattoos. A few small strategically placed. A lot more that appear life-altering, body-engulfing. Middle-aged women, 30-ish men, 20-ish women with small children. No age bracket or social status is exempt, apparently.

2. Africa. If your church or civic organization is hip, they are involved with helping Africa. It's an easy continent to draw on your pamphlets as opposed to like one small country like Cambodia or Kyrgyzstan.

3. earthiness. This encompasses so-called "being green" and the organic movement. If you wash and sort your trash into 10 or 15 containers, have thought about buying a two-seater car, and buy specially marked "eco-friendly" water bottles, shoes, tuna and curly light bulbs, you fit in. Please note, however, that it's mostly about buying certain specially marked products and doing specially noted "eco-friendly" activities that will help you fit in and help the cause.

4. non-conventional churches. How you rate on the hipness scale is directly related to where you meet and what you sit on while you are there and what you drink.

5. coffee. It's been the drink of choice for scores of years at small town church functions, auction sales, cafes and afternoon lunch on the farm, but more recently the hip city dwellers have caught on. They just traded in the 6 ounce Styrofoam cup for a 12, 16 or 20 ounce disposables and cream and sugar for skinny and soy lattes.

There's my list. What did I miss?