Prepping for Michael by Chilling with those Kirby Kids

With the second hurricane in a month bearing down on

 the Sandhills, we squeezed in our regular playdate with

Claire, Evan, and Ryan in advance of Michael's arrival.

First order of business in any hurricane is to make sure you have
secure shelter.  Evan and Ryan constructed this in the living room.
Conveniently located in front of the TV.

This is Roy Rogers and son Dusty showing how you "ride out"
a storm in style.

You still snoopin' around?

It took every available blanket and fleece to cover the walls,
ceiling, and floor.  I counted seven.

Later, the boys sample some of my vintage 1960's comic books.
Ryan has "Spiderman Meets Frankenstein" and Evan has Buster Bear.
Hmm.  Maybe I should have had them swap.

Meanwhile, Judy and Claire created another lovely snake,
enjoying a game of  HISSS!  For us it's actually DOUBLE HISSS!
We combine our TWO games for double the fun.

In the comfort of their tent, the boys don 3-D glasses to view
a video of the world's greatest roller coasters.  Amazing what
you can find at the Sandhills Coalition (10 cents!).

Vicarious thrills are fine when it's too wet to be outside.

Amanda Talbert, does this look familiar?  I never played this game
with you, but as of now, I have played it with Claire. We had to
draw cards that directed us to do dances like The Bump, The Dippy
Whip, The Egyptian, and The Ballerina Spin. 72 dance choices in all.
Each had to be done with a partner (we had each other). We ALSO
had to draw a card that modified the dance.  We might have to do it
back to back, with arms linked, while squatting, or with a hand on
the head (which made it harder to slap your knees . . .). And I mustn't
forget the Moonwalk.  We paused to look up Michael Jackson moon-
walking on YouTube. Impressive.  Us?  Not so much.  But what fun!

In the other room, Judy and Evan had several highly competitive
rounds of "Rebound." Ball-bearing sliders have to bounce off an
elastic band and score points without sliding into a pit. The Pit
of Death, to be exact.  Or Doom. Or something.

Ryan wasn't napping during all this.  He was on Judy's hope chest
playing The Magic School Bus on the laptop.  He also joined me
and Claire for the ending of Dance Party.

When Ryan brought out some dinosaur puzzles, Claire offered
to help.  We were missing a few pieces, but it didn't matter since
the directions said you could mix arms, legs, bodies, and heads
in any combination to create NEW dinos.  But they went after
the authentic look.

Here's "Happy Ryan" with his creations.

Here's "Fierce Ryan", growling with his creatures.

Claire has put together quite a Jurassic menagerie.

It was a great afternoon with the Kirby grandkids.

None of us were thinking about or worrying about

Hurricane Michael.  That was 18 hours ago.  Now the

rain has started to fall and the wind should pick up soon.

But don't worry about me and Judy.  We can always set

up that tent.