Childhood is Calling

It's a tag line in a commercial for Rice Krispies, but it's a very appropriate line for many of us moms, dads, teachers, anyone else who deals with children in any way. :)

I love that I have a reason to watch some classic Disney movies...it's because the KIDS wanna watch it, don'tcha know? ;) Some of my favorite classic Disney movies are Fantasia, Fantasia 2000, AristoCats, Robin Hood and Fun and Fancy Free. There are some new ones I like to watch as well. I have to say that my favorite "modern" one is the computer-animated Cars...my J8's favorite as well. :) Oh, can't forget Ratatouille! :D

I have boys, so whatever girly things I did when I was little has to be kept in the attic of my memories. Thankfully, I was a bit of a tomboy back then, tho. Somehow I lost my physical aspect of tomboyhood, but I can get down w/ my boys and play with Legos and Hot Wheels and have a great time w/ them. T13 is getting into shooting BB and pellet guns. I'm not too bad a shot, if I say so myself! ;) They are into more advance video games than Tetris, Pac-Man and Mario Brothers, so they kinda leave me out in the dust...it's okay, tho. :) I'll let them have their area of expertise and whup up on them with MY games! >:)

One of the things we always did when I was growing up was play games...card, board, dice, you name it, chances are we played it. I got pretty blamed good at them, too! A friendly rival game of Monopoly can add some spark to your life, y'know? Even Candy Land was sooo much fun when I played it with my boys! We got to where we'd call the colors by their Spanish names, too. J8 won many games, but I'm so happy he's a good sport when he doesn't. I'm looking forward to the day when I can break out my collection of Trivial Pursuit games to play. :) I have 4 0r 5 different TP games. He's finally chronologically old enough to play some of the bigger games we have. Oh, and Bingo?? Look out!! J8 and T13 rack up cookie prizes when we play Bingo! :) The boys beat me almost every time at Uno...I keep forgetting to say "UNO!" when I get down to that last card. : } We'll be trying to play the grown-up version of Yahtzee soon, too. With J8, I played that game more like Bingo when he was younger. He's growing into a math wizard in his own right, so we'll be learning how to keep better scores now. :)

Food. What can I say about childhood food?? There are just certain tastes you expect as a child. Sure, you can adultify macaroni & cheese and fish sticks or chicken nuggets, but there's nothing quite like the flavor you grow up with, especially if you're feeling sick, lonely, or just in need of comfort. T13's absolute favorite cuisine is Tex-Mex (we call it Texican sometimes, lol). If I want to specifically put a smile on his face, mentioning Texican food makes him light up the room. I'm serious! Believe it or not, J8's specialty seems to be soup or spaghetti. Trouble is, we haven't quite mastered a consistent flavor w/ homemade spaghetti, so that has slowly grown out of favor...unless we get Chef Boyardee cookin'...NOW we be smilin'! We don't rely too heavily on prepared foods, but there are some foods you just can't duplicate, and when you want them, you want them and the memories that go with them. :)

I think it's time to plan another childish day with the boys this weekend. Maybe I'll make some pizza and get a Battle or War card game going! Or maybe Checkers. Whatever we play, someone is gonna be Sorry about the Domino effects of playing Chutes and Ladders! :) Yes, childhood is indeed calling. :)