Hard at Play

Playing with frogs and toads has become a hobby around here.  They have become our pets, all of them. They have names, all of them.

I once heard it said that play is a little boy's work.  And, if that is the case, then my boys are very hard workers!!

They never complain about being bored, and I am thankful for that!  They are inside, outside, upstairs, downstairs, back porch, garage, front porch, front yard, backyard, swing set, slip and slide, trampoline, pool, sprinkler, and back again ~ like little blurs running past me all day.  Sometimes my head literally spins.  I just cannot keep up!  They have wild imaginations that constantly amaze me!!  Watching them takes me back.  I remember being a child like it was yesterday.  I remember imagining dream worlds, my own special places, and secret hideouts ~ under trees and behind furniture.  My childhood home was often transformed into a ship or a plantation or a palace.  My boys do the same.  They are knights, kings, cowboys, animal adventurers, superheroes, soldiers, indians, pirates, you name it, they pretend it.  Watching them play, imaginative play especially, makes me so happy.  It is so simple and sweet, so pure and healthy, so good and just plain right.  They are in the heart of their childhood ~ old enough to imagine but not too old to think themselves above acting it out!  These are good days, really, really good days.  And, I know one day they will sit around the kitchen table and reminisce about all their backyard adventures. There is nothing like watching them get all dressed up, sword in hand, walking out the back door to seek adventure.... together. (That is the best part!)

They are good old outside summer boys, and I love their dirty, sweaty little bodies to pieces!!!!!!

And, after they have played their little hearts out, they come in asking for a snack...

Fun days!