Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Friday Favorites...Qwirkle

We have a new favorite game around here.  It's called Qwirkle.  And it's something that everyone loves, which is rare these days.

The kids are at ages where it's hard to always agree on movies and games.  Chris has definitely grown out of most cartoons. He'd rather be watching Jurassic Park or something with a lot of action.  As you can imagine, he's not a big fan of playing the Curious George board games or Go Fish.  He's into games that I enjoy, like Cranium, Munchkin, or Bang!.  Analiese is also growing up a little, and though she's still a fan of most Disney animation, she really prefers watching movies like A Little Princess or Annie.  She's outgrown Candy Land, but still really likes Guess Who.  Sicily on the other hand loves Curious George board games.  She also loves "Don't Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus" the game.  She loves cartoons, especially Tangled, and has no interest in what she calls "real people" movies.

I love all of these stages for different reasons.  I love playing games with Chris.  I love listening to the music of Annie with Analiese.  And I love watching Tangled almost as much as Sicily does.  But you can see how this is a bit of a dilemma when it comes to family time.  Trying to decide what to do when we were all hanging out had become incredibly frustrating. Then we found Qwirkle.  Actually, it was a Christmas gift this year.  And it has been a wonderful gift.

The object of the game is to match patterns of blocks.  If you place the 6th block in a pattern you make a qwirkle and get bonus points.  It's simple enough that a 7 year old can play it.  But it has enough potential for strategy that an 11 year old can play it.  And if I'm honest, I really enjoy playing it as well.  7 to 30, we all really  like this game.  I have gotten up some Saturday mornings to find the kids already up and playing Qwirkle around the dining room table.  All three of them!  I think that says a lot.  It's become a Friday night regular around here.

 I highly recommend this game.  We have yet to get tired of it, after several months of continuous play.  And anything that promotes time spent together as a family is worth every penny.

Boosterthon Fun Run

Wednesday was the kid's Fun Run.  Boosterthon is, by far, my favorite school fundraiser.  It's fun for the kids.  It promotes a healthy lifestyle and positive social skills.  And, this is the real bonus, you don't have to sell anything door to door.  I'm a fan of all of those things.

My three little sprites did very well.  They all ran their hardest.  Sicily ran 44 laps.   Analiese ran 39 laps.  And Chris ran 52 laps. By the time Chris ran it was 81 degrees outside.  Hot for early March, even for a southern state.  In fact it was hotter than expected, so I made the mistake of dressing the girls and myself in pants.  We were all pretty sticky and gross by the end of the day.  But it was worth it.  I got to cheer them on from the start/finish line as I marked off laps on student's t-shirts.  It's an incredible joy to watch my kids work hard for something and succeed.  I think they're all pretty amazing.  Maybe a little biased, but definitely not wrong.

The arrival tunnel.  Each class picks a name and mascot, and they are announced right before they run onto the field.  It definitely adds to the excitement.  These are Granger's Greyhounds.  Sicily was one of Crane's Crocodiles, they came out making chomping crocodile mouths.  Chris was one of Pearce's Panthers, roar. 

3rd grade was one of the first grades to run so they got to run in a nice early morning fog.  Pretty morning.  Pretty girls.

                                           Analiese's finished t-shirt                                           

Ready to run!

grab water and keep running!

marking Sicily's t-shirt.  I got a few extra hugs this way.

Before the run

After  the run...
After running over 50 laps in 81 degrees, these guys were gross!  Just look at their hair, dripping with sweat.   Now imagine the smell.  Blah!  Good thing their mamas love them.  

Sometimes You Have To Make Your Own Rainbow

This Moment

A Friday ritual. A single photo-no words-capturing a moment from the week.  A simple, special, extraordinary moment.  A moment I want to pause, savor, and remember.

*inspired by SouleMama

Freedom of Fashion

The boy got new shoes last week.  Cool new Skele-toes.  For the record, I think this is a funny trend in footwear.  But the boy says they actually help him run faster and he loves them.  So funny looking footwear it is.  As a parent, I've hit the stage, with all three, where I have to let my children make their own fashion decisions, knowing that we'll all get a good laugh later.  For example, the girls have discovered the fun of colored eye-shadow.  We have recently left the house with each of them having a nice shade of lime green from their eyelashes to their eyebrows.  Laugh (inside) and let it go.  Because I know that my own mom is laughing right now thinking about the family picture we took when I was about Analiese's age.  My color of choice was navy blue, from eye-lash to eye-brow.  In retrospect, lime green is actually a better choice for a young girl.   

Kony 2012

I know I haven't posted in awhile.  I have an English professor demanding all of my creative writing energy at the moment.  But don't give up on me.  I'll be back.

Until then, check this out.  Then act.  Pass it on.  No matter what your politics are or what you've heard of this group, I think they deserve an ear.  Now you know I don't hop on the socio-political band wagon very often, so indulge me a minute.  Here, I am simply applauding the inherent hope and action of this movement.  These people saw a big problem, and, instead of walking away simply saddened, they sought a way to fix the problem.  Will it work? I don't know.  But it definitely won't if we discredit it and throw it out as an unstructured pipe dream.  This is me, giving it a chance.  Because the next generation deserves a chance. All of them.



KONY 2012 from INVISIBLE CHILDREN on Vimeo.