Horseplay

I have a pair of goofy kids. Some of our best family moments occur when Amelia and John are playing nicely together, using their imaginations to come up with whatever games are amusing to them at the time. I don't have a benchmark for comparison with other siblings, but I would say that for the most part they play quite well together most of the time. Some of their games are a hoot to listen to, such as dog/master, teacher/student, and zookeepers. I enjoy overhearing their banter as I cook in the kitchen or get chores done around the house.

I tried to take photos during such playtime this weekend, but they didn't turn out as well as the game was played. Amelia and John spread a bunch of quilts all over the living room floor, and then arranged their stuffed animals strategically around them and pretended to play zookeeper. It was cute - they categorized the animals by type (as if in cages, I suppose), and took turns feeding them.

And then because there were quilts all across the wood floor, the game turned into a hyper-crazy wrestling match (which has nothing at all to do with zookeppers). This was cute for, oh - about a minute, until I interfered because I feared a forehead or other semi-delicate body part getting smashed against the hard floor. I tried to calm the kids down by taking pictures of them in goofy poses. Below you can see the excitement/crazy look all over Amelia's face as I tried to catch her in action.

Then I suggested that the kids sit together and mimic the pose in one of my favorite photos of all time (see below). This was taken in October 2007, when Amelia was 4 years, 3 months and John was 1 1/2 years old. I snapped it randomly one evening after the kids had their bath and were getting ready for bed.
Now of course the kids are too big to sit on the floor in front of the couch (as in the photo above) for me to capture the photo that way with the placement of the living room wall and the furniture, so I told them to sit in the same pose on the couch together. Of course, this led to extreme tickling and one jumping in the lap of the other, and well, you can just tell how successful my attempt was by checking out the shot below.


But at least they were smiling and having fun, which is what counts I suppose.

I had more success with John smiling later that evening as I captured him modeling some of his new fall clothes. I took the kids fall clothing shopping on Sunday afternoon (I was inspired by the 95 degree weather outside, ha ha) and ever since they have both been obsessed with wearing sweatshirts and sweaters around the house. It's crazy. Check out John's lovely furry crocs. He loves them. The pants are his lovely superhero pajamas and are not meant to be worn outside the house.

And last but not least, we all enjoyed a brief visit witih mom and dad as they stopped by for one night on their way home from Jackson. I made everyone pose in front of the Fit since their RV was parked in an area RV park. We all had fun visiting together, being entertained by the kids (of course), and we even made it over to SMU for awhile to watch the tailgating action before Saturday night's home game. Mom and dad enjoyed watching the SMU sorority girls parade around the boulevard in their sundresses and cowboy boots.

Mom and dad left Sunday morning and were planning to arrive back in Gainesville sometime Wednesday. Their goal was to arrive a few days before Friday, which is a big day for our family as we look forward to welcoming the new addition to John and Laura's family. I am so excited for John, Laura, and Jack and cannot wait to become an aunt again! Amelia suggested the names Lydia and Chris, and John suggested Ella or Max. We'll see!