In the world of fantasy

Sometimes I don't know what to do with the fantasy that surrounds me.  i suppose mostly I try not to squash it with reality.

Argh!  Wednesday was speak like a pirate day, Mateys.  In our pirate garb, we descended upon Krispy Kremes to claim our booty.  Four dozen donuts!  The kids looked great and the treat was tasty.  There was a lot of "Shiver me timbers"  and "Argh"  aboard the Garfield ship that day.

Hyrum is convinced that he needs to build a machine that will send him into the television so he can go on a mission to mars with the Backyardagains.  We built a machine out of a diaper box, some plastic tubing (for breathing), 4 dials for steering (one per person), a red ball (for making us smaller), and a funnel ( for shooting asteroids).  Then we attached it to the TV with the video recorder cord.  It was fun, but he was crushed when it didn't work and tore it apart before I could get a picture. This week he has been playing Rocket Boy with me on the trampoline when his sisters nap.

Then there is Alexa, who is constantly creating new worlds and stories.  Last week she was convinced that we were going to go on a vacation on October 23 to Antarctica to dance with the penguins, play with the polar bears, and build snowmen.  Meltdown of ginormous proportion when I told her that was not going to work out.  This week she is planning on melting down plastic beads to make a potion for a princess doll that Hazel is going to get for her birthday.  Hazel's doll is going to become a magical necklace that when squeezed will change us into fairies, and unicorns, and "cemataurs". "Then Hyrum will be able to give us all pony rides".  Then, we are all going to live in her special world for a whole year, except Daddy because he has to go to work.  And in her special world there a magical white Everlasting Flowers that bloom year round and even in the snow.  She drew a picture of it for me today, and outlined it with yellow highlighter so I could see it better. It was really pretty and she drew a horizon and is working on adding details to the background.

I go back and forth with how to deal with all this fantasy.  On Alexa's  6th birthday i took her on a unicorn hunt and let her find a locket from the unicorns.  She was in heaven.  But, whenever Hyrum wants to go on a visit to Grandma and Grandpa Marshmallow's I try to find excuses why we can't go.  Mostly because I can't think of what else to do.  I'm not very good at pretending to see something that's not there.  When Alexa was 4 we kept a jar of pink sugar crystals in the window for 3 months because on her birthday they were going to turn her into a butterfly so she could fly around the world.  Then her birthday came and went without incident. And amazingly she was ok.

Hazel hasn't really entered the world of fantasy.  She likes to dance, dress up, and play with the Little People, but hasn't really expressed a conviction that these things are real.  I wonder if that comes later or it's just not her personality.  We'll wait and see.

On Saturday we put on our engineer caps and visited the Ogden Union Station to see the last and largest steam train.  We had a fine time climbing all over the engines and some long trains and riding mini trains around the parking lot.