Made-Up Games and Outdoor Movies

My dad was driving through town today on his way back to Minnesota and was able to stop by to see the kids (and, well, me and Meghan too, I suppose). One of the more fun games I play with Joshua is where he tries to throw a ball down the stairs to the basement while I try to defend against it. Joshua wanted to play this game with Dad, so they played several rounds of it, with my dad mostly successfully defending the goal. But every athletic endeavor carries some risk, and at one point while playing defense, he took a ball to the face.  But he shook it off and didn't need any time on the Disabled List and kept on defending.  After that, Joshua decided they should have a sword fight with the pool noodles (they are not actually used for the pool but were a car-ride activity for our trip to Florida).  Joshua thought all of this was super fun and laughed uproariously the whole time.  Even though it was a short visit, it was really fun and we made the most of the time we had.

Our neighborhood association does a good job of hosting different fun events. Today was a new event they hadn't done before, as they hosted a family movie night. It was held in the parking lot of our neighborhood pool with a large inflatable movie screen. The girls were still napping, so I took Joshua in our wagon.  They had s'mores available, so Joshua got to roast his own marshmallows, though he was a little intimidated but intrigued by the fire.  We ate the yummy treat, and then the movie started, which was It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown.  They also had freshly-popped popcorn, so Joshua chowed through a bag of it while watching the movie.  He hadn't really seen Peanuts before, so I tried to brief him ahead of time on Snoopy, Woodstock, and some other characters.  Incidentally, I later realized Woodstook (along with Peppermint Patty, Marcie, and probably others) hadn't been created at the time of that movie, so they aren't in it.  After another s'mores break, they started Hotel Transylvania, with the idea being to have one movie for littler kids and one for bigger kids.  It was dinnertime at that point, so Joshua and I skipped the second movie and headed home.  It was a fun event, and we'll probably try to do it next year, probably adding Clara to the mix.