Monopoly

I've been sitting here working on details for the Retreat this weekend and Oliver and Silas have been happily playing Monopoly.  They started off playing the regular way, making up a few rules here and there but pretty much buying properties and collecting rent like normal.  They were doing a great job at counting out money and were very cute in helping each other figure out change that was sometimes somewhat accurate.

Here are some snippets of their conversation:

• It says "collect one hundred dollars" - yesssss!
• Oh no!  You're almost to go in jail!!!!
• Do I seriously have to give you money just because I landed on your thing?  Mommy - is that fair?
• I'm in fat city now, baby!

But now they've taken Monopoly to a whole new level.  They've set up the game board into some sort of 3D structure and they've come up with quite a complex and imaginative world of Monopoly.  Here are some snippets of the conversation I'm hearing now:

• How about these are just special cushions so if your guy falls off the top, he's OK (holding up a stack of money)
• "Receive for savings 25 bucks" - I got this card in the mail because I jumped off the top and people paid me for it.
• Oh no!  This is bad!  The bad guys will totally buy this property while we're gone.  Silas, hide those cards in your money pack then the bad guys won't get them.
• Oh, all the chance cards are sinking into the sea!  
• But remember, chance cards can actually float so it's OK.
• But Oliver, it's a space ship now - look if we just put the board this way!  Yeah!  That totally works!
• OK so this piece is my spaceship and you can ride on it sometimes.
• Oh, I'll just connect up my spaceship to yours.

All this with a monopoly board, monopoly money, chance cards and playing pieces.  It's been going on for 2 full hours.

Every day, there's some sort of exciting adventure going on for Oliver and Silas. They run a training school for dogs one day, they create a palatial fort another day, they save their stuffed animals from bad guys or transform the house into a boat on a crazy river the next day.

We make cookies together

They play constantly with their beloved dogs - Choochoo the chihuahua and Puggie the pug

They do puzzles a lot - one day they made what they called a "puzzle art gallery"

I love these little guys SOOOOOOOO much and I'm feeling really sad that I've got only a few more days where they'll be home with me in the mornings while the rest of the kids are at school - then I'll have everyone home for the summer and then everyone will be in school all day next fall.  After having them in full day Kindergarten in St George, I've loved having them back with me for 1/2 a day here in Ogden where they've had 1/2 day Kindergarten.  They're so much fun to have around these days.  We bake bread and cookies together, we walk down to the library a block away and indulge in the plethora of books there, we look up cool videos about penguins or pandas or monster trucks or pea-shelling factories on YouTube to answer their questions, go on bike rides and walks - and I listen to their imaginations run wild while I get stuff done on the computer.

I'd have much preferred to send them to school when they were 2 and caused amazing mess and stress on a daily basis.  Now that they're so fun and easy, I'd like to keep them around longer!  Sure, they pinch each other and suddenly need me desperately and loudly when I'm on the phone.  Sure, they get into little tiffs about random stuff a lot and still make messes and have a problem with whining about almost everything I ask them to do lately.  But I'll keep them.  Forever and ever.