The Day When We Did Nothing

We had a few ideas for what we might do with Kevin and Karen on their last day here, but, after all the busyness of yesterday, we decided a day at home didn't sound bad at all.  So we decided to stay in and do what we've been doing since 1997: play a board game or two.

I have to say, the kids, all three, were very enthusiastic about this plan.  I'd gotten a few more new-to-us games from the thrift store that they were eyeing. While Kevin and Karen woke up, Dennis translated German instructions and got the kids made up rules for the meanwhile.  Alex was punchy with excitement: he ran off to his room to get dressed, and when he returned to the kitchen table, he announced his entrance with "The fun is back!"

The surprise of the morning was when we played a memory-style game, appealing to Dennis and Joey, both, because it involved primates.  There are six little sealed containers of monkeys, a different color in each container, and these get shuffled around the board: you need to remember which color is where, and collect one of each.

And Joey won.  (Dennis and I don't really pull too many punches, either. We're much too competitive for that. Never mind that Joey is three.)

But the poor little guy: after winning that first game, he got really anxious about repeating his performance on his second game.  He'd try to steal peaks at the monkeys, or, and it came to be his turn to guess, he paused for a long time. "How about....you make a guess for me?" he asked, hopefully. Eventually I noticed his eyes filling with tears and decided that perhaps we should go a little easier on the small guy. And maybe we should pay more attention to the "ages 7-99" suggestion on the box.

(Alex also has a startlingly keen memory and often wins any memory-based game, particularly when playing against me, but he, too, completely lacks confidence, and always wants to be on a grown-ups team.  I'm always more than happy to claim him for mine.)

So we played a few more Joey-appropriate games, and saved our competitive inclinations for the matches among the adults.  Karen tried to remind us all that it was more about having a good time than winning, but the rest of us knew better.

While we played, the kids kicked around the house and watched television.  Alex, his allowance burning a hole in his sweatpants pocket, ran off to the train station, where he, very sweetly, bought a whole, treasured gummy worm for each of his siblings, for no reason other than love.

But you can only keep kids indoors so long before the bickering starts, so Dennis took the kids out to the yard for some exercise. He had the joy of playing Smurfs for the very first time.

The kids eagerly explained the rules, how Dennis would be Gargamel, and, thus, the buffoon who would fall victim to all of their traps and antics.  Alex pulled out his Smurf potion bottles and drank one, explaining to his dad "This one will make me fast," and then, adding, just in case it wasn't understood, "But really it should make you slow."

Joey, throwing himself into his part.

Ella generally vacillates between playing Gargamel (if there isn't a grownup around) and, of course, Smurfette, and Alex prefers Jokey and Hefty.  Joey, who relishes being in charge, almost always claims the role of "Papa 'Murf," but today he decided to switch things up and be Lazy.  And he took his role seriously: when Dennis called the kids over for a powwow, Joey started to join them, but then remembered himself. "No, I Lazy 'Murf!" And then he dropped to the ground, honk-shooing away. I think we need to play Smurfs more often. Particularly at bedtime.

And so the day passed by, shockingly quickly.  When Lazy and the rest of the Smurfs were truly asleep, we adults found ourselves also exhausted from a long week and weekend, and so we rounded out the night gently, curling up to watch Kiki's Delivery Service.