Kick the Can

Guillermo and Maya celebrating Will's 32 birthday earlier this month.

We had a wonderful day outside. It was beautiful here, sunny, probably upper 70s. We took the kids to the nearby elementary school and tried to fly our shark kite. We did pretty well and Maya and Guillermo had so much fun trying to jump and catch the kite when it started falling toward the ground. When they grew bored, we took them down to the track and they took off running. Guillermo ran a full lap in Crocs, stopping only once. Maya took off after him and made it more than halfway around before she called for help. When I arrived, she wanted me to run with her, in the same lane, of course, so we finished off our lap. 

Later, while Will went to his radio show, I took the kids to the park and then when we came home, I taught them how to play kick the can! 

We used to play kick the can a lot during the summers when I lived in Iowa. I grew up in a wonderful neighborhood. Trout Valley was filled with kids, big backyards and riding lawn mowers. One side of the neighborhood was surrounded by a corn field, and a creek bordered another side. We spent a lot of time fishing and stomping in the creek and playing in the corn field. Somebody's parents had built a wonderful treehouse in the trees that lined up against the field.  We all went to the same elementary school (and the older kids went to the same junior high and high school) and many of the kids my age played on the same soccer team in the spring and fall. We had neighborhood 4th of July picnics, complete with parades and games and when the creek flooded, as it seemed to do often, everyone would pitch in to help clean up our neighbors' homes. Many of our parents became good friends, which meant they would spend Saturday evenings at one home while the kids played at another home, with the older siblings babysitting until we were old enough to babysit the younger ones. Or, we would play outside and many times that meant we played kick the can in my cul-de-sac. (OK, it's entirely possible we played kick the can only a few times, but the fun memories make it seem like we played the game every night!)

Playing today reminded me so much of growing up, though there were only three of us today, instead of a small army back then, and it was a bright sunny day instead of a dark night. Guillermo loved kicking the can (a black bean can, if you must know) and only wanted to hide. Maya's favorite game these days is hide and seek, though she usually only wants to hide with Guillermo, so she had a great time, too. I think we probably played 10 rounds, getting them good and tired for bedtime tonight, the goal of any weekend day!