still playing

One of the many things I'm trying to strike a balance with is the amount of "doing" on our weekends. If you read here, you know we try to see the world on these 2 days a week that we're not working and schooling, but sometimes I like to set aside a weekend to say "Yes" to all the other things the kids (and I) want to do, long baths, many rounds of board games, kid cooking, playdates...and this weekend seemed to have endless time for ALL of that!

First we enjoyed Shabbat dinner with Papa and a fabulous (and, remarkably, FREE!) family fun night at the rec. center-So happy our friends showed up too!!!

Then we played an absolute marathon of Mancala...which I know there is more strategy too-shh, don't tell the kids, but I'm going to check on line for the Mancala "cliff notes." I seriously don't want to go to work today, I want to keep playing Mancala. Scarlett is using some incredibly mathematical thinking with it and calculating several moves ahead.

We visited 2 animal shelters and Stella has found one of her many callings and wants to volunteer with animals "literally, Ema, at least twice a month." "Literally" is her word of the weekend.

Oh, the photos! Well, for years I've been wanting these little playsets to have at Thanksgiving time. One is settlers and one is native americans, the kids added these glass "gems" that they are using for water and the sets have seen a tremendous amount of play the past few weeks.

Scarlett had the idea to make our pancakes "giant" and then use cookie cutter to make shapes before we ate them, and Zeke spontaneously needed "a white sheet and permanent markers" to make a challah cover.

Yes, I see Zeke's favorite pants are about to shred at the knee, I'm going to patch them...I've never done a knee patch with the right amount of "give" but I want to try again with these and will hopefully learn a new sewing skill in the process...

Speaking of sewing, while stella was writing about her visit to the animal shelters I cut out my first sewing pattern (Yikes!) I'm still scared to do the marking and notches-will need my seamstress neighbor to hold my hand for that... I'm taking a dressmaking class on Thursday night.

Oh, and we ziplined our heads off! Must get photos when I'm not pulling kids the length of the yard and sending them laughing and screaming and swinging to the other end...Thanks Amy and Keevyn for ALL of your hard work and patience with this project!!!! And if you're reading and don't know what I'm talking about, get your tails over here for a ride!

Finally, we visited and had visitors, and I made a few fairly decent meals out of a rather sad looking fridge...2 of my favorite things!

Hope your weekend was similarly fab!