Big ... BIG.... BIG!!!

Another outside play day!

Is bigger always better?  If so, we had the best!

We built a bonfire!  Well, not a real bonfire.  But it was a good one, ringed with large rocks and built up with evergreen boughs, fallen sticks - and sopping wet leaves.  (Smile).  I know the girls are at least somewhat familiar with "outdoorsy-ness", so I was trying to remind them that wet things won't burn.  They were having too much fun grabbing whatever they could find, though, and throwing it on the pile.  So I let them be and watched the creation grow.

Our fire started out small, a good size for roasting marshmallows.

But then I heard "Bigger! More rocks!"  One of the twins quickly took the lead, and we widened our circle, added more branches.

"Big!  Big!  BIG!"

More rocks, more branches, more leaves.

"Big, Big, BIG!!!"

I must have heard that 10 times.

More, more, more!

"Big, Big, BIG!!"

Even in the drizzly rain, noses turning pink, after a short break under the sprawling rhododendron, and dirty, wet fingers, THIS is our finished result!  (taken the following day, before school, since on the actual fire-building day I DID NOT HAVE MY CAMERA!!!) New rule #9 Never go anywhere without a camera.  You'll regret it.  :)

Using Your Imagination

The world of possibilities!  When you use your imagination, you can go anywhere in the world (or the universe) and be anyone - an astronaut, a pirate, a fairy princess.

It's nice to know that kids still use their imaginations to play outside, in this day-and-age of electronic entertainment.  I'm sure I've said this before.  I enjoy watching a good movie just as much as anyone - maybe more.  It's my artistic/author side.  I love a good story.  BUT ... I also love getting outside and breathing the fresh air, and I'm glad the girls I nanny do too.  And they are great at letting their imaginations go!

Their favorite thing to play on at "the castle park" is the tire swing.  Last summer we started a game on the tire swing where they imagine they are flying up into the stars and collecting them.  Then they were taking the moon!!  Or butterflies.

Then the other day, when it was finally warm enough (barely) to play outside, they went straight for the tire swing.  And their usual imagination game got going, but then, instead of going up into the sky, they were caught in a whirlpool that was sucking them down into the bottom of the ocean!  Fortunately, there was an underwater city that was magic so they could breathe.  There were strange under-water people down there, and they were friendly, but they couldn't speak our language.  The under-water people liked to sing, and they taught the girls one of their songs, and they sang it for me.
It was a good song. When they'd visited long enough, the girls got back into their magic ship and came up, up, up above the ocean, above the land, above the mountains... and kept on going up into the sky, above the clouds and into the stars, their favorite place to be.  Quite a busy day!