This Weekend in Play-Dates

I wanted to drive to Northern Virginia for the long weekend, but it didn't work out. John was working Saturday, Sunday, and Monday night. I asked if he'd have time on Monday morning and heard, "Dentist appointment" in reply. Sam got everyone in Megan's family sick and Matt stays busy, so I called it off before even calling him.

Shane got to see kids at TKD Day camp on Friday (Teacher workday), at soccer on Saturday, and at Sunday school, but we didn't have anyone visit our hours until Monday.

Dylan and Eli came and saw the farm for the first time.

Eli immediately started to rev up Loki.

Dylan joined in and Loki was running in circles and barking like mad.

Neither of the boys accounted for Loki tripling in size from when they last saw him. There was no outrunning him now! Eli thought he was safe on top of the 'hill,' but Loki exposed the flaw in his plan.

No one listened to my advice. The boys kept running and hyping Loki up until they weren't sure they liked a dog running wild and barking at their heels. Loki's good about not being too rough, but he is (annoyingly) mouthy which can be scary to someone not used to dogs.

Dylan tripped and the dads called a halt to the wild festivities.

We went inside and Minecraft came out. Dylan was still curious about Loki.

Shane, on the other hand, felt the siren call of electronics.

Eli remembered how much fun Kirby was the last time he visited us. Eventually, all of the boys joined in and worked on their 2-controllers-for-3-kids diplomacy skills.

The adults managed to get some conversation in, but John had no voice. He had the flu last week and the doctor told him he had developed pneumonia! He was deemed non-contagious, but John sounded like a long-time smoker who'd come back from a jog.

The kids did really well and we were able to enjoy some rest while the going was good. John had to return the kids to their mom's house, so they cleared out before dinner.

Tuesday, Henry came over after his school let out (private schools don't close for election day). 

Loki gave the kids a workout again.

Henry is used to animals, so the running around lasted longer.

I played amateur photographer as usual.

I enjoy watching and taking the pictures, but looking back at them I wonder if I should have run out, too.

I can barely outpace Loki nowadays and I suspect that's partly because he doesn't really want to run me down. Loki enjoys running along and barking madly. He looks like he's tempted to nip at heels, but so far has refrained.

Shane gets his own "ideas" like throwing gravel dust that seem good in his head (or he doesn't think about at all), but aren't father approved. If the ideas are goofy, that's ok, but if they involve a risk of injury or extreme mess they can get him in trouble.

In this case, the game ended because the boys were tired. They ran around for half an hour before Henry wanted to show Shane some games on his iPad. The boys holed up in Shane's room until it was time for horse chores. Henry came bounding out and wanted to help. Shane wanted to curl up inside on the couch with his "precious," and skipped out (the turd).

It was time to put the iPad away when we got back to the house for obvious reasons.

Dinner was a hit. Carrie cooked spaghetti for everyone and the boys shared some Bertie Botts Every Flavor Beans for dessert. They both agreed that grass tasted decent. Henry shared that he liked boogers, so booger flavored would probably be good, too!

The boys finished out the night playing Kirby together from what I saw. Carrie and Grandma held down the fort while I left for a final trivia night, but that's a different story.