The Greatest Fun on Earth

You know, Big A. and I sometimes talk about how we don't take exotic vacations or even have "fun" weekends like other people seem to. And, yes, we're working on that. But honestly, why do we need all that? Look what we do have!

We have the funnest, funniest, most surprising form of entertainment known to humankind--children.

Like the one time that Little A. took his obsession with magnets up to eleven. Our first preview? S. came out of the kids' bathroom, proclaiming, "Really, A.? REALLY?" We shrugged it off at the time, but when I used the bathroom later that day, I shut the door and found magnets on all the hinges. Possibly that's what offended the sixth grader's sense of decorum.

Later that day, I found one of Little A.'s pictures had fallen down--and the nail missing from the hole. Guess where the nail was? Somewhere in the pile of magnets and magnetic items that he'd assembled on his floor...

Hinges are magnetic!

"Ummm...where's the nail?"

The nail's in here, clearly.

So another ongoing form of fun--the "learn your alphabet" letters still hanging out in the bathroom. Both kids get in on this one, taking turns arranging them and displaying their personalities. Little A. tends to organize more; S. tends to illustrate more. The other day, she demonstrated how to solve for X with the letters and I actually had to say, "You two! Stop doing algebra and take your showers!"

Ducks on a pond with aquatic life below.

I believe this one's a boat.

 A sense of humor has become one of S.'s defining characteristics. Her dad and I alternate between enjoying the heck out of it and making sure it stays in bounds. (Like most young ones, she can sometimes think she knows everything and be a little harsh on the rest of us.)

Her latest came in the form of Star Wars jokes. What do you call soldiers for the Empire while they're in college? (Dorm troopers.) What's a really bad Rebel search engine? (X-Bing.)

And she's confident working with jokes for previous generations. Witness the hours she spent snapping a screenshot of this one:

Every Friday, she makes and wears a new science hat--Precipitation (shown here) was an early one; she wore a Tectonic Plate last week. They're becoming a fun ritual with her teachers.

When S. was little, we started putting pictures of our extended family on the fridge to help her remember who was who. The tradition continues today. I honestly don't remember which of them did it, but one of hte kids arranged the pictures in the shape of...a family tree. Yep.

I think it's safe to say that our family tree provides just about all the fun Big A. and I can handle these days. We are pretty darn lucky!