Polite Pirates
Our children hit the Strohl’s house like a little hoard of water-weary pirates. They quickly made themselves at home and proceeded to ransack and pillage. Most of the pillaging was of finished craft projects made from supplies provided by Donna. Although they also acquired further supplies for future projects here at home. The first of these projects was fuse beads which had the advantage of taking a long time to complete. This meant that the quantity to bring home was fewer. The suncatchers were a different story. Kiki managed to paint 20 of those in a single day. Gleek nearly matched this output. The boys did a single car each and called it good. Gleek also acquired a spare clear plastic merry-go-round designed to be colored. She got this merely by asking for it. The tactic was sufficiently effective that when it came time for us to go home, Gleek asked to take home some of the Strohl girl’s toys. I told her no firmly, but she did get a little easter chick as a going away gift. The other kids each got one as well.
The Strohl house was not the only source of new stuff. Kiki scored a copy of Girl Genius from Phil Folio himself. He even signed it for her. She squealed in delight. When we visited Wizard’s of the Coast Stacy gave us piles of Neopets cards and DuelMaster cards. The kids tore divided the piles with glee. I tried to stash all the cards away to keep them safe, but various children kept demanding them. Patches was particularly adamant about wanting his cards. He still carries around a little stack of Neopet cards for portions of each day. He loves to sit and sort them. None of my kids have a clue how to play the games asociated with the cards, but they’re sure that the cards are super cool. Some of the stuff we acquired we actually paid for. Gleek bought a stuffed seahorse at the aquarium. Patches bought a scuba diver play set. Link bought a game called “Don’t tip the Penguins!” Howard wasn’t to be left out. He bought a set of Girl Genius welding goggles. The kids all covet those goggles.
I’m not above doing a little pillaging myself. When I visited Kreely, she gave me free run to peruse her bookshelf and borrow a stack. I tried to be careful and selective, but part of me just wanted to shovel books into a box and run off with them. I now have a lovely stack of books waiting for me to find the time to read them all. This is a wonderful improvement over wandering through the house, bored because I’ve nothing to read.
So, lots of pillaging. But at least we’re polite pillagers. We always got permission first.
The ransacking was also by permission. Mostly it took place on the night of Thursday March 29. That was the night of the Schlockfest. The adults all hung around upstairs talking and eating yummy food. The kids all stayed downstairs watching movie after movie. They did make frequent forays into the kitchen to grab food and retreat. By the time the evening was over the downstairs was a jumble of toys, costumes, movies, chips, spilled drinks, and assorted other smashed or crushed food items. It definitely had the morning-after-a-wild-party thing going on. The next morning all the little pirates were required to help un-ransack the downstairs. I tried to make sure that it was put back as nicely as it had been before we arrived. I’m not sure I totally succeeded. Donna had everything so beautifully clean and organized. I’m just not sure everything got put back where it should have gone.
Now that the pirates are all at home I think I’ll make them all write thank you notes. See, we’re polite pirates.