Date #2

It's a long-standing Krech and Whitehorn tradition to play board games (unless you're my mother who's not so into them).  Growing up, I remember being introduced to your typical games like Battleship, Monopoly, and Life.  When I was about 10, my brother expanded our family board gaming to Risk, Castle Risk, History of the World, etc. and those are the kinds of games we still play.  A favorite for the last 10 years or so has been Ticket to Ride.  At the behest of my cousin, Daniel, a board game fanatic (he has over 50 board games, not counting the games his 3 daughters own), I bought Evie the junior version of Ticket to Ride and we played for the first time yesterday.  She caught on pretty quickly, though I had to help her with the strategy, which is fair because it says it's for ages 6 and up.  But she picked up the game play itself in terms of how may train cards she had to trade in to be able to place trains on the board, and what cities she had to connect.

Sunday, we met Desmond's family at the community center where Evie and Desmond will both be going to summer camp.  Evie went there last year and when I told Desmond's mom about it, she was excited about the opportunity since they already have a membership there and the kids would be able to play together.  The center was having a carnival on Sunday to introduce families to the building and show off all the different camp themes they have, so we met there and let the kids play together.

They went in the bounce house and bounced for a while, then did some of the other activities.  They did a Ninja Warrior-inspired obstacle course.  Evie has very good balance and Desmond was doing fine, but not as well as Evie, so Evie went over to hold his hand to steady him.

Then they shared some popcorn.

And caught a wave.

For every activity they tried out, they got a ticket and they could trade in tickets for prizes.  While Evie and I were waiting in line to get her face painted, Desmond traded his tickets in and got one prize for himself and one for Evie.  I thought that was the sweetest thing.  After the carnival, we all went out for lunch at Mellow Mushroom and the kids shared salad, pretzels, and pizza, and my coat since they got a little cold.  I think this photo is darling (Evie asked to do her hair in curls the night before, because she knew she was seeing Desmond the next day).

I know the odds that these two will actually grow up and get married are incredibly slim, but if it happens, I can't help but think how amazingly precious it will be to have all these photos of their adventures together as children.

Other stories/memories to capture:

• I love and don't want to forget how when Evie finds something amazing, she says something like, "wowy, halley, kalley, balley, malley!"  I don't know where that comes from - maybe she made it up herself.
• Talking to someone this week about animals, she reported that Pooka was in heaven (Pooka who died about 2 years ago) and how she loves Pooka so much....
• Katy Perry's song "Firework" came on the radio and after listening to about a minute of it, Evie states, "This is an awful song."
• My mom was cooking dinner while we were at the house and Evie said she was hungry.  Mom said the food was almost ready.  Evie asked, "Do you have macaroni and cheese?" (a staple) and Granna said she did.  Evie looked up at Granna and said, "Thank you, Granna!  Will you always have macaroni and cheese when I come to your house?"  Granna assured her she would try to always have it for her.