Backside Burdens

We felt like we had gotten such a good deal on our dining room table that we purchased just weeks after Brennon was born.  We got six padded black vinyl chairs plus the counter-height (starting trend back then) table for $300, purchased at 3:00pm and delivered by dinner time the very same day.  However, within the year, we were not so enthused-- the chairs were no longer padded, only ever sat on for meals and mostly by young kids, and the vinyl had come apart in the weirdest patterns.  When we moved from Wyoming to Washington, we left all non-essentials behind, coming with only the scratched table with no chairs, and a loveseat.  Other than that, we had nothing to sit on.  Our rental looked SO bare without much furniture.  Since our "high end, furniture store" chairs had proven such a waste and disappointment, we purchased the cheapest chairs we could find for our kitchen table.  We thought it was a good idea.... until this weekend.

With the falling snow the past few days, they ended up cancelling church, as well as school today.  We decided to use the time together to play more games.  We haven't had enough competitive arguing, I guess.  It ended up being SO much fun.  After teaching Caden Cities and Knights on Friday night, we ended up playing a few times with Keilie and Caden on Saturday.  The younger kids were our dice rollers and cheerleaders.  They never complained, just said they wished they were the recommended 12 years old to play. 

With the news of cancelled church, we decided to play the original Settlers of Catan- Expanded version as a whole family.  It.Was.A.Blast!  We played multiple games All.Day.Long.  Truly, the only time spent away from playing Catan was either meal times, or shoveling 4 driveways.  Hence why our 'cheapest chairs possible' are not our favorite purchase right now- our butt bones are quite sore today.  Along with our shovel muscles, but that has nothing to do with the chairs.

I was the banker, helping Brennon whenever he needed.  Randy helped Shelby and Tyson, giving them more and more choices without suggestions as the day wore on.  A typical game played with adults that know what they're doing usually takes about an hour, with the expansion version adding another 20 minutes, or so.  When you have six players, three of which are kids under the age of 10, just learning, playing the expansion version, our games tended to last about 2.5 hours.  At least.  Plus, it takes a bit longer when you have kids accidentally dropping the dice (ended up putting them in a tupperware container to keep them where they should be- and to keep the frustrated annoyance from our hearts) or pieces, a kid that need to eat an entire plate of pizza bites for snack time, twice, or kids that concentrate on building fun designs with their pieces instead of concentrating on the game.  Shown here...

and here...

All-in-all, we played one game with just Caden (I won), 3 games with the kids (Randy won all three, but kept it a secret so Shelby could win 2 and Brennon could win 1), and then one with Caden and Keilie (Randy won) that ended at 10:30pm.  We really enjoyed our Sunday spent as a family, although Caden told us three times that he hated that church had to be cancelled. 

And tears were only shed twice!  You know us-- you know this is a big deal!  Shelby because she slipped off her seat and hit her chin on the table, and another when C.R.D's competitive frustrations burst from his burning, angry gut.  He is my child all the way-- he just wants to win!

The snow came down in the most beautiful way for most of the day, big flakes all over.

 It's too hard to see it coming down in the picture above, so I tried another approach: cute subjects.

 His black coat didn't stay that color for more than two minutes, it was really coming down. 

Mira lost her ball once, so they all donned their snow gear to help her dig for it and find it.  I can't even believe how perfect Jackie and Darwin's gift was this year- we have set snow records here!   And I was in my favorite place to be when it is cold: inside, taking pictures of my treasure.  And, Ashlee, if you are reading this, I used that word and meant it to be pronounced, "Tray-Zures" just to annoy you.  And then we got right back to our games!

Mira loves the snow, but she also love the discarded snow gear too; she alternated her time between this spot, laying directly on the heat vent, or under the table all day.  We had a good day!!  Even Caden, and he didn't even win one game!  Caden, when you read this, know that I just wanted to annoy you, too! 

Caden asked Mira if she enjoyed her day.  This was her response...

 First thing this Snow Day morning, the kids asked to play Catan.  I said yes, but only if they would get me a pillow to sit on.  The game and table set with padded chairs are all ready, so I'm off to play!