Thursday, August 13, 2009

Flutter by

Today is a beautiful day! My mom informed me that the heat index over the weekend is supposed to be in the 100's. I'm trying not to acknowledge that.
Since it is so lovely outside, of course we went out and played. The kids love stepping out the front door and peeking over to "GB's" (my mom's) to see if she is on her porch. About 90% of the times she is there reading her newspaper, and about 90% of those times, we go over for a little visit. What a blessing for our children to be able to be so close to their grandparents -- in proximity, and in heart, too!
I really love watching the kids play out there in the front yard, and joining in the fun some, too. Sidewalk chalk; running races; grass and clover and dandelion bouquets; princesses dancing; princesses laughing; princesses playing dead in the grass until someone comes to kiss them; using jump ropes to hitch siblings up to scooters for a "modern-day"(?) horse and buggy......and watching butterflies. They all love to spot and chase butterflies.
When I was a kid I played alot of the same games, but with my friends and mostly my neighbor, since I don't have any siblings. I think our all time favorite, go-to game was "Goopy-Goop". Translation: mud pies. A majority of the time was actually spent shoveling and sifting dirt with our sandbox toys. The dirt had to be perfect -- free of rocks, bugs, grass, etc; lovingly and repeatedly sifted to form millions of tiny spheres of earth. Then we could add water. We could sneak around the garage to the other neighbor's yard and steal their gigantic wild onions. We could mix and slop it around. The end product was usually a pail- or wheelbarrow-full of grassily garnished and rockily decorated sludge. Of course it was a cake for some forest animal's birthday. Because we were orphans who grew up in the forest and befriended all the forest animals.............. you know, there in the back yards of our homes, in the middle of town. :) It was glorious.
So, what did you play when you were a kid?