September 2 with the kids

Tuesday:  I was ready for the kids when they came home from school today. I got everything done that I had planned to do around the house so that I could play with them when they got off the school bus. We had a bunch of fun!

Look at little Cal!

Aidan asked if I would play a game of Chess with him. He informed me that they found a "lost" Chess game they had, and he was excited to show it to me. It's designed around "Harry Potter" and looks super cool when you have all the players on the board. I was trying to snap a quick picture of Aidan holding the box, but he blocked his face out!

So ... I think I was less than truthful when I told him: "Pooh! I missed your face, Aidan! Oh well!" And I think Aidan assumed that I had given up trying to get a picture of him--but NEVER assume that about this grandma! So I did actually get a sneaky picture of Aidan after all (below).

Little Cal gladly inserted his darling face into the picture ... what a cutie he is! Look at the Chess pieces! I had a hard time distinguishing the knights from the bishops, and even the king and queen gave me pause ... but they look very cool for sure.

We went outside, since it was such a perfect outside day--and played stomp rockets for awhile. I might have to go back to using my older one because this one "jams" for some reason. Perhaps I'll get it figured out this week as I play with it.

Erin was especially "into" stomping today ...

Cal was too ... except this was when it started jamming up and wouldn't blast a single rocket off. Very frustrating. He did get a few in the air before it stopped working.

Aidan grabbed a comic book from the back of my car and amused himself with it, and read it aloud to us too. Aidan loves a good comic book and his sense of humor is so much fun to observe and share.

I didn't get a single picture of Brendan today. He came home a bit later, after Cross Country practice. It's a bit uncomfortable to always be pointing a camera (or phone) at a 13.5 year old boy; so I try to be careful about that. Except ... I SO badly want to take pictures of him! Sigh.