Sunday

We had a couple of friends over on Sunday morning, Finn and Emmeline. They live around the corner from us and Finn and John were at the Day School together. Emmeline is at the same school as Christopher, but she is a year behind him.

All four of us, plus Keats, walked to their house with the wagon. We stood talking a bit to warm up the kids, then headed back to our house. Finn and John rode their bikes and Keats and I went with them, Emmeline and Christopher rode in the wagon with Tony pulling. C and E cried for about five minutes, but then Tony figured out E wanted to ride backwards and C wanted to ride forwards, so it was perfect.
E spent the first half hour just standing around, taking it all in and watching the boys run around. Then she started to play with the Green Lantern disc shooter, and jumped a little on the trampoline. Tony and I cleaned out the garage.

John, Finn, and Christopher played on the deck and the fort.

 After that the big boys rode bikes with the "free-range" family boys from next door. They are very nice, just not in our radar. Their second (of four boys!!) is in Finn's class at school, and John rides the bus with them, so they had a good time. Their third child, who is 4, can ride a two wheeler up and down the hill in front of our house. I was very impressed. Plus, they all wore helmets, which always scores points with me.

The big boys and I joined Tony, C and E, who were inside eating applesauce and playing with "Cars" cars.

 E read a little bit of Dr. Seuss's "The Foot Book" to us.

 John got out the doctor kit and proceeded to diagnose himself with a case of sillyitis.

We then had PB&J sandwiches and genetically engineered strawberries on the fort in the back yard. (The Costco strawberries are as big as golf balls, sometimes bigger!)

Emmeline played on the little slide in the back for a bit. She's at that age where they are serious whenever they are playing at something a little new.

 Their mom came over to get them soon after that, and we all walked them home. It was a fun time, and we will definitely do it again!

Later that evening, when Tony was vacuuming and I was worn out, we Skyped with Mimi and Pa. The boys showed them their new laser target game that I picked up for $2.50 at the consignment sale. John was mostly just excited to have a gun that made noises.

John's big project right now is learning to tie his shoes. Evidently his teachers have hit the saturation point of tying kids' shoes and rewarding kids who can tie their own with a trip to the treasure box. I don't let John wear tie shoes to school for exactly that problem, so he has been diligently practicing tying laces. He has actually got the tying part down, but we won't let him wear them until he can also undo the resultant knots... He's getting very close. I'm just happy he's working toward a goal that is stretching him a bit!