Dandelion face paint and other joys of childhood

Clearly a greenhorn was at the helm, because not enough actual schoolwork got completed, but we had a wonderful day with our neighbors all day today while their Mom had jury duty. We kicked things off with pancakes and a little drawing and math homework, and then moved directly to pretending and, ultimately, gardening and outdoor play. We started a new chapter book together. We even got our walkie-talkies out and pretended we weren't virtually on top of each other already. They called it "undercover overcover spying". I think the idea was to keep me from knowing what's going on around me in the backyard. Or, perhaps I was being undercover-overcover spied upon. I'm not sure-- they're really good.

To top it all off, that same person drained by jury deliberations today made dinner for us (and her husband got it into the oven), allowing us to play longer at the park in the afternoon. It was a day of fun and cooperation all day long. There were so many things we wanted to do but ran out of time! We'll just have to try it again, but Kathleen says that she can't be called again to that court for another three years, so it may not be on a jury duty day.