The Great Outdoors and Monopoly!

The last couple days have been really fun. We have had some really nice weather, so the kids have played outside a lot. We've had fun at the park and in our yard. My in-laws have the BEST swingset/clubhouse, so every day is like being at the park. It's convenient that it is right in our own backyard. We've done picnics outside for the past 3 days, sidewalk painting and chalk, races around the yard, t-ball practice, soccer, and a lot of Indiana Jones roleplay. We were lucky enough yesterday to have my sister Shelley come up for a few hours with her two boys, Jack and Nolan. When they left, we had a park day. Here are some park adventure pictures!

Noah, Andrew, and Andrew's friend; Dylan



My two favorite girlies; Ava and Ella

Another really great simple pastime has been Monopoly. Last night, Brian decided he was going to teach Andrew how to play Monopoly. So, we sat and played with him for an hour and a half while Andrew's younger siblings slept. (Sidenote: For some reason, we've always allowed Andrew to stay up a little later than he should. I don't know if it's his magnificent ability to stall, or if we're just too lazy to deal with the whining, but somehow, he usually gets away with staying up later than the rest of the kids.) Anyway, it was really enjoyable to watch Andrew play Monopoly and actually sort of understand it. I guess he's 7 years old, so I shouldn't be surprised that he is starting to understand money and ownership, but I really was. It's getting so fun to do these kinds of things with him and to have him enjoy games and "older kid" stuff.



Anyhow, today Andrew and I played Monopoly with Noah too. He did pretty well (for a four year old) but didn't quite understand why he couldn't just buy all the properties at once and why he had to pay rent. (Some adults have problems with those concepts too). Noah did say, "Mom, I really like money!" Andrew commented with, "I really like owning all these places." I guess we have a couple future real-estate tycoons on our hands.


Here are our Monopoly experts!