Wizard Basketball

That's right.  Not chess or Quidditch.  But Wizard Basketball.

Bud made it up yesterday.  Hogwarts students play basketball but use spells to get their shots and block others.  Spells like "reboundus."

Our team, of course, beat the Slytherins.

Here Be Dragons!

This morning while waiting for the bus, we had fun "blowing smoke" with our breaths in the cool air.  Who blows smoke?  Dragons!  So Sis was Toothless (How To Train Your Dragon) and Bud was Norbert (Harry Potter), while I was Puff and Mama was Pete's dragon, Elliot.  I'm sure we looked crazy to the neighbors heading to work and to the bus driver picking them up as we stomped around the driveway blowing smoke and waving our arms flying.

Thing 1 and Thing 2

Actually, that's Stinky Thing 1 and Stinky Thing 2.

The kids have been playing skunks.

Yep, about the most powerful and fearsome thing they can imagine right now are skunks who can spray. But as they tell it, it's pretty powerful spray--it can paralyze snakes and other scary creatures. And so they have been crawling around the house after "Black Beastie of Thunder" and "the Queen of Lightning," our two cats, who don't like skunks or children much this afternoon.

I'm Mommy Skunk, anointed by the Stinky Things when I returned home from errands this afternoon. But apparently neither I nor the baby skunks can smell the stinkiness.

That's a relief, because it'd be ripe in here.

Rocketship Run

"5-4-3-2-1, Blast off!
Another Rocketship Run!"

The kids are hooked on outer space and Laurie Berkner's music is their themesong.

They have been talking about outer space regularly for a few days. I don't know what started it--the trip to AMNH with its giant meteorite, an episode of "Caillou" where he goes to the Planetarium, "Magic School Bus Gets Lost in Space" episodes complete with space helmets and asteroids heading to Earth, or a new-to-us book called Here in Space about how Earth is part of space and a great place for a little boy space explorer.

"5-4-3-2-1, Blast off!
Another Rocketship Run!"

Bud and Sis have repeatedly asked me if we live on a planet. They want to know if Gommie and Pop, Aunt Banana and Uncle Soccer, and Miss T live on our planet (for awhile Miss T, they thought you'd "left the planet" and Sis said it just wasn't "the same planet without you.") And are curious if our planet is in outer space. Does that make us aliens? or astronauts? They want to know if the sun is a planet and how far away the stars are. They are concerned about the meteorites that wiped out the dinosaurs (it's in one of their books) and want to know how big that rock must have been.

"5-4-3-2-1, Blast off!
Another Rocketship Run!"

Today, they played rocketship. They set out two big pillows on the floor, with wooden blocks under them (Sis said they were "mission control" things; Bud said they were "landers"). They filled the pillows with their critters, fetched magnifying glasses, put on their outdoor plastic rainboot "space boots," and then donned their great big Rubbermaid reusable plastic salad bowl "space helmets."

"5-4-3-2-1, Blast off!
Another Rocketship Run!"

In space, they headed to the moon where they picked up their magnifying glasses and looked for "space insects," walking around the house with those bowls on their heads, and their pink (hers) and yellow (his) boots. At one point Sis's hat rolled away and she rushed back to her spaceship pillow, knowing she shouldn't float around in space without her gear. The game pretty much ended there because she didn't want to fetch it and didn't want Bud to be "swooshed away" either.

"5-4-3-2-1, Blast off!
Another Rocketship Run!"

Later, Sis was drawing circular rocks on a doodle board, explaining they were "pretend meteorites heading right here." Bud took her very seriously and got quite upset, even when we both explained to him that she was pretending and that the meteorites weren't real. It might be all fun and games, but outer space can be a scary place. I just hope it's fun again tomorrow.

"5-4-3-2-1, Blast off!
Another Rocketship Run!"

Mommy's Little Bakers

We have a new bathtub game. It just to be sailing ships, then playing with the little dolphins; cups are always big, especially when I pour water down on them from way up high. And frequently we act like various marine animals.

But now we're baking.

Yep, you heard me: baking.

They have plastic drinking cups for pouring and they've started covering them with washcloths. First it was bread, then cookies. Sometimes they bake ice cream. DD prefers pumpkin spice; DS always mentions chocolate. I like both. Which is good, because I'm offered some every night. "Beep, let's look." After numerous peeks under the washcloths and declarations that it's "not ready yet," the cups go back in the soap holders in the corners of the tub to finish. They sing "pease porridge hot" or "pat-a-cake." Then the cake/pie/ice cream/cookies are ready, but "it's hot, it's hot," I'm warned.

When bathtime is over, the cups are put, washcloths in place, back in the "ovens"--"don't touch, it's hot"--and are ready for the next night.

I guess all our messy kitchen experiments are sinking in.