Kid Jail

When I was a little girl, I always pretended to be in an orphanage. I was the orphan and played with my little sisters or cousins.

One day, I overheard my children playing in the other room. Only, they weren't playing "School" or "Orphanage" or "Family" as I've sometimes heard them describe their playtime. They were playing, "Kid Jail".

From my children's perspective, this picture can be construed as "Life as we now know it" or "Dad and Mom's life pre-kids" :-)
 

I posted something about this on Facebook and got quite a kick out of peoples' responses so I will paste them here:

OK Parenting Experts: I've enjoyed listening to my children play in the other room this afternoon. I realized they were playing "Kid Jail". When I was little I always played "Orphanage". What does this mean? Do my kids feel like they are in jail? Did I think I was an orphan?

• Ann: I played dollies but I wasn't really a mom yet. Lol

• Catherine: Great imagination! We played "Monster".
•  
• Monika: We always played orphanage too :-) Probably the tv drama of the times like all the law and police stuff is now.
•  
• Cailean: I remember playing "office" where we filled out all these pretend forms. Can you believe we thought that would be FUN as an adult? Hahaha. My guess with the jail/orphanage thing is kids pretend things they don't understand to help them feel some sense of control -- so it's not as scary.
•  
• Janie: I think we played "orphanage" to have an excuse to be mean to poor little Emma, I mean Jessie, without getting in trouble. :) Actually, I think we felt quite secure in the fact that we weren't orphans, so it was fun to pretend.

   
• Jess: I loved every minute, meaness intended or not... I felt included. Interesting and thought provoking question you pose Colette. I wonder...

   
• Me: Now I think I just want to have a playdate so we can play office and orphanage :-) Catherine, I think I am too gullible to play monster :-) I think "kid jail" sounds like a horrible place to be
•  
• Melissa: Where is that pinky doll?
•  
• Holly: We played school, library and market. Usually all at the same time.
•  
• Me: @Holly - love it, I remember staying with your family when you lived at the old white house, all the girls (or at least three of you) were in one room. I thought it was the best fun jumping from bed to bed @Melissa - my Pinky doll should be bronzed, she was so great. I hope to restore her to full playing capacity someday, right now she is taking a breather under the gray table in the laundry room downstairs in Clifton
•  
• Melissa:  I might search out that doll and reenact past uh memories...
  I tell sav abt us playing house with the wood blocks. The tall round ones were the parents ect. Best place to create the house was the piano bench
•  
• Linnae:  That's funny! My kids play hospital all the time. (I guess because of what their dad does for a living.) sometimes Jacob tells me he can't do something I've asked, because he has to go do a c-section. O-kay then!
•  
• Me:  Linnae - that is hilarious. I've never even thought of playing "hospital". Definitely a chuckle on this one; @Melissa - I am not worried about you and Pinky, I think all the Mom=ness in you has softened your heart and yes, those wooden blocks were the best, slightly grimy but the best

School Pictures

I know we all have some real winners in our history. I wrote about one of my best here.

Well, of my three children and their school picture packets, two packets have returned home. They didn't come home the same day. One trickled in one day and another the next. I assume my son will bring his home at some point. His pictures must be crammed in his desk until the teacher threatens his recess time till he cleans it out.

My oldest daughters' picture is just OK. I figured I would keep it and be semi-OK with the results.

The youngest, however, I just don't know. What do you think? Should I keep her?

I mean it?

Little Boys' Dreams Don't Change

I am a Red Sox Fan by default. My father is a large enough man that to cheer for some other team really wasn't an option. I recall being in about the third grade and the Red Sox were playing in the World Series. They lost. The kids at school asked me if my dad had stomped a hole through my floor that night.

I kid you not, visions of my dad's big, work-booted foot, stomping through the family's green-carpeted living room floor haunts me to this day. I think he really could have done that.

If he wanted to :-)

I was living in Provo and married when the Red Sox won the World Series (first in my lifetime). That was the greatest win ever. Not only had they come from behind in the series, but that last game was pulled off in heroic fashion (anyone remember the bloody leg?).

Well, tonight is another night to go down in history. Congrats to all Red Sox Fans and most especially for my dear dad. Sweet dreams :-)

 

 

Just a note to add for fun memory sake:  my mom didn't return home till almost midnight, the night the Red Sox won the World Series. Apparently Dad waited up for her. He had gotten out all of his Red Sox Memorabilia and spread it all over the living room couch. The next day was Halloween and there was no question he dressed to the nines in Red Sox everything :-). 

Still Fits

I don't need to give much dialogue for this post. We got out our Halloween gear/décor for the month ahead. My daughter was just convinced that she could be Strawberry Shortcake again (costume from two years ago) because it totally still fits.

Not to pleased when she saw me chuckling after she matter-of-factly stated, "It still fits"

Lookin' Down on Creation

You know Karen Carpenter's song, "Top of the World"? Well get that one in your head because I'll show you some pictures that felt like we must have been up there quite a ways :-).

Over Labor Day Weekend (note I said over the weekend, we didn't actually go ON Labor Day which was kind of an issue for my children - who insisted they needed something to write about the next day for the first day of school. You know, the "What did you do over summer break question?" Never mind all of the travel and fun we'd had all summer, what really counts is the day before school starts.), my children and I traveled westward to the Washington coast.

I didn't tell the kids where we were going, I didn't tell them how long we'd be gone. I wanted to be flexible and kind of "fly by the seat of my pants" on that last weekend before school was to start.

We headed to the ferry,

Guess you can't tell, but this really is a ferry. Our car is underneath

waited along with hundreds of other residents yearning to "get out of dodge". It seemed like getting over to our destination took quite a long time, even though on the map it didn't look so far. We went through many windy roads interspersed with simply breathtaking views. Lake Crescent took my breath away, such a beautiful huge lake right in the middle of the heavily forested mountains. I hope to return to Lake Crescent for camping or canoeing another time.

We went clear over to Forks Washington, a small town the size of the nearby "city" where I grew up. We swam until 9 or 10 pm, that night.  The next morning, after having a nice conversation with a cashier at the only grocery store in town, we headed over to the coast - La Push. I loved this part of the drive because there were signs all over (big, homemade kind of signs - none of that neon, flashy stuff in the city) talking about werewolves and references to the hit story series set in Forks, "Twilight".

Love the Beautiful Ocean

La Push was perfect. The beach was sandy (much to my surprise, I thought WA only had rocky beaches) and the atmosphere so calming. We spent all morning on the beach.



You can just feel the sand in your toes right?

Heading back toward home, we stopped for ice cream at Lake Crescent and again determined we must go back there. Since I had already paid the National Park Fee (Sol Duc Hot Springs - had to pay to enter forest, but found out the resort was full, so I didn't even stay there), I headed on up to Hurricane Ridge - the top of the Olympic Mountains. What a windy road to get there, but wow was it worth it.

Catching the Wildlife on our Sunrise Point Hike

You can see the road way down there can't you? Seriously high up

I've given you a travel log, which isn't funny but these pictures make me smile because we all had a great time. Just looking at these Hurricane Ridge pictures makes my stomach turn knots. We were SOOO high up there.


Hurricane Ridge -- Visitors Center View



I may be smiling, but I was scared to death