leaving on a jetplane...

When the kiddos are outside in our small play yard I do busywork in the kitchen and watch them through the windows. They get so involved in their play and I find that when I am close they check themselves as if any grown-up will make them stop what they are doing so I stay hidden. The outside play began with two groups. One group in the sandbox dig, dig, digging away, and the other at the table with the magical tea set that they so love carefully holding the dainty ceramic cups as they poured cup after cup of glittery orange tea.

The children played and I washed our paint cups. They screeched and laughed and clamored and negotiated. I wiped down the tables and stacked our chairs. One of the kiddos ran into the kitchen to get a chair but they were all stacked up save for one. She grabbed it and took off. Next, another kiddo came in and found all the chairs stacked up and groaned in dismay. I reminded him that there were more chairs in the classroom and he stood there in the classroom concentrating on finding the chairs. The chairs they use everyday at the art table, light table, and play kitchen. When he spied one he grabbed it and dashed outside exclaiming "Guys! Guys! We can use all the chairs in the room!"

And so they did. They lined up all the chairs they could carry atop the black mats that I find irritating as we have no place to store them and they slip from their stack every day (can you imagine if I had removed them from our yard?). They lined up the mats, carefully connecting them to each other then placed the chairs on top. There was a tea set to serve refreshments and an inflatable intertube as steering wheel. The sandbox had been abandoned. The firetruck play was put on hold. The ever popular marble run was discarded. They all worked together to build a plane that was to fly them away to great adventures.

I think the adventure has already started.