Cultivating Childhood

There are some things that I know I'll forget as time goes on if I don't write them down.  One of these is my boys' recent obsession with playing games in the car.  They are such chatterboxes in the car that we have tried to harness the crazy nonsense into games.  Sometimes (often?) this just makes for more structured crazy nonsense, but at least I get to join in, right?  So, here are some of the more favorite games... The "Say What You Are, and the Name of It" Game This is a Buddy-original.  In this game, you just pick anything and say that you are it.  A fence, squirrel, paper, etc. are all legitimate options.  It usually goes something like this. Buddy: "Let's play the 'say what you are, and the name of it' game.  I'm a car!" Button (giggling histerically): "I'm a car!" (We're still in the copy-cat stage). Buddy: "Mommy, what are you?" Mommy: "I'm a tree." (Another round of gigg

While the rest of the country is trying to figure out how to survive the heat, here in Seattle we are still wondering if we will see the sun for more than two days in a row.  The temperature has finally started reaching the 60s and 70s regularly, but there have been lots of clouds and rain to tease our idea of "summer". Despite the weather, we have been determined to enjoy our times outside.  We've been going to lots of parks (I really will start doing some park reviews again soon), and just finding fun activities to do around town.  Here are a few of the fun things we've done lately.... Seattle Center For one afternoon, we decided to make a trip downtown and walk around the Seattle Center.  The city has really done a lot to upgrade the Center as the 50th anniversary of the World's Fair in Seattle is this year.  There is a beautiful glass garden, upgraded buildings, and they even painted the Space Needle it's originally hideous orange for the occasio