Tuesday evening

It's soccer season.  Which for Papa Bear, Mr. Man, and Peace means soccer practice on Tuesday evenings.  But for Mama and Pie it means some special time together.  Oh how I love Tuesday evening.

We are in charge of dinner preparations for our hungry athletes, but there is plenty of room for play as well.  

Pie is certainly shaping into quite the little dinnertime helper.  She washes dishes, sets the table, and even cooks - as much as Mama will let her.  Because we all know she would attempt to drain the hot water from the pasta if given a little too much space to do so.  Kitchen help is always welcomed with a little extra in the watchful eye department.  She is so eager and so proud of herself and I love her company.  What do they say - a spoonful of sugar!

Play, however, is where she gets to take the lead.  It usually involves chalk and lots of curiosity.  One week she asked me to trace her with chalk.  Then she traced me.  This week, we made a hopscotch that went all the way to 40.  She wanted it to go to 100, but we ran out of driveway.  What I love is her take on the rules of play.  She placed rocks in every even number and jumped ON the squares with the rocks.  The best thing about one-on-one time with Pie is that there are no older siblings to tell her that she's doing it all wrong!

We like to discover and this week it was the pond behind our backyard.  I'm not the most adventurous person, so climbing on the old docks with rotting wood and creaking boards made me a little nervous.  But Pie led the way with confidence.  I only had to help her a bit with navigation.  She was sure we were headed the wrong way even as we completed the circle in our neighbor's backyard.  I'm afraid we would have walked to Mars if we had trusted her sense of direction. Ahem!

Oh, did I mention that she only likes to wear her dressy shoes, no matter the terrain? Sigh!

Well, we made it home just fine and dinner was served just in time for a hungry crew. 

How's that for a Tuesday evening?!