What have these kids been reading?

Usually I find the phrase, "He's all boy!" mildly irritating, mostly because I don't want any boys hearing that and thinking that there must be some boys out there who are "partially girl". But in this case it was the phrase that came to mind as this conversation took place while my all-boys were busy with Tinker Toys:

Me: Hi there. What have you been making?

Jude: I made the ANGEL OF DEATH!

Jonah: Yeah. He made the Angel of Death. But I made the star of goodness.

Me: Oh wow. The Angel of Death? And the Star of Goodness. Hm. Wow. And what did you make, Paul?

Paul: Um....Pakah. [sp?]

Me: Pakah?

Paul: Uh-huh. Pakah.

Me: What's Pakah?

Paul: Um... Just some wicked guys.

* * * * * * *

This little exchange should give you a pretty clear glimpse into the personalities of my three eldest. Jonah is the color-in-the-lines rule follower. (Typical first child personality, apparently.) Jude is the intense and dramatic one with the imaginative bent. And Paul is my nonchalant goofball. More or less.

This also goes to show that you never know what parts of the Children's Book of Bible Stories is going to make the deepest impression. Anybody else out there ever heard of "The Angel of Death" done in Tinker Toys? Sheesh.

Crash

This week we instituted the crash pile (a heap of pillows gathered from all over the house for the boys to jump on) as a remedy to the smushy weather outside and the pent-up energy inside. To give credit where it's due, reading this gave me the idea and was one of those Duh-Why-didn't-I-think-of-that? moments. Rachel's kid-friendly projects are usually extremely nifty, but they are also usually geared toward the girlies in her life. However, the crash pile has definite crossover appeal. Plus, we set the mood by adding a crash pile soundtrack—the newly acquired BeauSoleil CD (thank you, yard sale) cranked up to 11. The end result was little boy euphoria, and our living room has already seen repeat performances. Woohoo!