Monopoly

Joe bought Monopoly Junior at Goodwill this summer. It's been fun, the perfect level for Adin, but a little too simple for Erik. So Joe taught Erik how to play regular Monopoly yesterday. The first game taxed Erik's attention span a little, but after taking a break he asked to finish the game. He begged to start a new game last night, and the two of them spent an hour or more in the basement last night playing. This morning was my turn to sleep in, and when I came down, it was obvious Erik had been nagging to finish the game. So they went right back down for another hour or so.

I don't remember exactly what it was I was trying to get Adin to eat, but his response cracked me up: "I dare not try it." I asked if he heard that phrase in a book or something and he told me, "I growed up saying it."

Clue

Happy thanksgiving! We are having a lovely, warm, day. My parents picked up a board game from the lending library in their building. We've played Clue Junior at home and gave Clue not Junior (as the kids are calling it) a try. We played in parent/child teams and it's very funny to hear as Erik's parent partner whispers to him what he should guess and then he says it out loud. He's very, very serious about games. Adin, on the other hand, is running around the condo half naked, dusting, jumping, hugging, and having lots of fun.

Here's a picture from my Dad's birthday, just to show you what late fall is like in Minnesota this year.

Cleaning Blitz

So often things happen I want to post, but then don't get around to it. While Joe is reading a story about the first Thanksgiving I'll write something up quick. We just had a five minute family cleaning blitz! We all put things away and swept. After five minutes Adin was done, partially because it's bedtime, but Erik was going gangbusters and wanted to keep helping. He found another place to sweep (by the back door) and then helped pick things up off the carpet so I could vacuum. It looks sooo much better! Dare I hope we could make it a family tradition to clean for 5-15 minutes each evening? Perhaps I could motivate them extrinsically with a weekly reward. Hmmm.