Growing Versions

It is the tail end of birthday season 2017.  Just one more to go. This was the first year ever that I didn't lose sleep over kid birthday parties. The older kid had two very grown up outings with friends. The younger invited everyone he could think of to the splash pad. We had a lot of fun planning it together because we got to plan the fun stuff: the type of pinata, what to put in the pinata, the best type of water gun, only fun decisions. We got to the park a few minutes before his friends and picked a random tree to attach this pinata to. After the kids arrived, they quickly discovered that it had been attached to a rather special tree. It had been planted to honour the life of "The Candy Lady", Lizzy Hutchinson.  I have a feeling she would have approved.

Kid: "Do you want to play a game?" Me: "Sure." Kid: "I have a shrink ray and a grappling hook.  What do you want? Tell me what you want and I'll shrink it and get it for you." Me: "Okay.  How about that lobster trap?" Kid: "Sure, here you go." Me: "I want that house and that man jogging over there.  Actually, every person you see on the road." Kid: "Here you go. It's a replica." I like this game. A lot.

Here are some of the games my son insists should be available and findable on the internet. "A butterfly catching game and then you release them in a house, then he turns into a catepillar and then he goes outside  and he squiggles around and you then the fox eats them up and then you can see is in his brain whoever eats the catepillar and then whoever picks up the catepillar you can see in his hand." "A pot catch with the pot and then you could look inside their head and you can make your own slide and get something to put on your slide.and animals make it and go down it and you can bring with you like playing bey blades down it." If only, and maybe, someday.

How you get points in this game, how you lose points and how the points get saved is known by one, and one alone.

Glue beats paper. Scissors beat money. Dynamite beats rocks. This weekend we have been letting go of the stranglehold that the wii, iphone and computers had over us all too often in our free time these last few weeks. We floated in the water, had several staring contests and planted an indoor garden. The re-wiring is underway.

The burn of defeat, the roar of the burning gas of success...or neither if I don't have the guts to play. Lately, we've been playing more board games.  We unearthed the game cupboard and straightened it up.  This time of year I start wanting to play more because it gets dark earlier, its colder out and its not t.v.  However, I am always confronted by something when I start playing games.  I have to stare myself right in the eye and play to the fullest, or, not bother.  I wrestle with this all or nothing paradox and board games are a great place to weed it out of my kids. Alas, my kids are already having a hard time walking that fizzy line between winning and losing and enjoying themselves either way.  Newer, more convenient adaptations are being cooked up on a fairly reliable basis.  One of the few games we can get through start to finish without tears or sighs  is Candy Land (unless one of us has the great misfortune of landing on licorice)....

Last week, I shared my confusion over this  new game .  So, I got my daughter to write down the rules so I could understand them better. 1. Set the game up 2. Roll the die. 3. Go how many steps the die says. 4. Try to get past the evil markers that are trying to block you. 5. Get your right birthday penny. You win by the getting the right penny of your birthday. The prize is your own birthday date which you can make 3 wishes on. I have to say, that clears things up considerably.