August 26 with the Kids

Tuesday: I think we have officially designated Tuesday as the day I will be caring for the kiddos after school each week. I've arranged with Dylan and Kelly to come over a few hours early so that I can do my "Grandma Housekeeper" routine, which will free me up to play with the kids later on when they are home from school.  So that is what I did today! I arrived at 1:00 and cleaned until 4:15 or so when the little kids got off the school bus. Brendan had Cross Country after school, so I didn't see him until Dylan brought him home later in the afternoon. Since Dylan and Kelly had a dinner invitation tonight, they asked Sarah to come relieve me by 6:00. I haven't seen Sarah since Dylan and Kelly returned from Europe, so I was really glad to see her again!

I brought a few of the kids' favorite games with me so that I could lure them away from the TV. They DO have set TV restrictions and I DO enforce them as Dylan and Kelly ask me to; but even then, it seems that they are so let down when they are not watching TV that it is difficult to get them interested in anything else. EXCEPT ... games! All of these beautiful kids LOVE to play games. Yes! I love to play games too!

Cal was telling me that he got to play JENGA at school today. Thankfully, that is one of the games I brought with me to play with the kids this afternoon.

So, Cal, Erin and I played a few "quick" games (because the tower kept falling down--but that's what the entire games is about!).

Then Aidan decided he would play too. We had quite a long game going there for awhile. Everyone was being VERY cautious in which block they picked to pull out of the tower.

Sarah arrived promptly at 6:00! She is super nice and really good with the kids. She enjoyed watching us play a few games, and I enjoyed interacting with her very much.

Here were are playing TETRUS TOWER, another very fun "balancing" kind of game. The kids really enjoy the colorful unusual shapes, and you just never know what is going to happen when you pick a card and it designates which shape you must add to the tower. It's very fun!

Brendan finally got home, so I got to see him for a little while at least. He grabbed a piece of graft paper and began making 3-D pictures on it.

Kelly had pre-ordered pizza from Costco and Dylan and she brought it home for us to eat--this was before Sarah arrived. So dinner was all taken care of, and I got to play awhile with the kids. I hope we can continue this throughout the school year. I will try to think of a variety of interesting toys/games I can bring each week for us to play with.