Tree Climbing and Gourmet Mud Pies

I had a chance to visit with a good friend of mine today. We each have three children- girl, boy, boy- who are all about the same ages. It is fun to see the children “pair off” with one another and do “their thing”.

Often times it’s the girls chasing the boys out of their club or secret society that they’ve just set up. Or else it’s the boys destroying something the girls are using, often times domestic items. And let us not forget the new dynamic between my toddler and her infant- this usually involves some sort of pushing, hitting or plain-old tackling. There is never a dull moment when we are together. It's always a pleasure to visit with this friend and there is rarely ever a lull in our conversation. In fact the only time there is a break in our chatting is when one of the children calls us to “come see” or to help them in some way.

Two main events brought us outdoors from the cozy living room in which we were spending our afternoon today. Both of which I wish we had captured on film/photo because they were pretty unbelievable. I must say also that these two events really depict the difference in natures between boys and girls.

The boys experienced their "first real tree-climbing experience” together today. We had seen our boys "climb" trees before, but this just usually meant gaining a couple of feet and perching on a few of the lower limbs of a tree. When the girls shrieked for us to “come see the boys climbing trees", we slowly made our way outside, lingering a bit to finish a sentence or two.

We were not prepared to see that the boys had practically climbed to the TOP of a pine tree! Now I am not a good judge of distance/heights, but I will venture to say that they were a good ten to twelve feet up in the tree. We were impressed, terrified and asked them to come down nice and slow.

Next it was the girls' turn. They called us out to see their "mud pie". This was not your ordinary mud pie. It was the most beautiful mud pie that I have ever seen. They had carefully mixed dirt and water to the perfect consistency and packed it into a bowl, turned it out onto a plate and decorated it gorgeously. This pie was garnished with Bittersweet on top and miniature pumpkins trimming the edges. They then proceeded to slice us pieces with a real butter knife and served us on paper plates. We laughed, applauded them for their hard work and creativity and headed in with the two youngest boys.

I was secretly proud of the boys for climbing so high and letting their adventurous little inner people take over and rule for an afternoon. Very dangerous living.

And as for the gourmet mud pie... I can say that I am proud of my little girl's desire to prepare such a pretty dish. Even if it was just dirt