Last night we had a full-family “bean bag war.” It was a lot of fun, just throwing these hand-sized bean bags at each other and trying to catch the ones being launched at you. Isaac was a sweaty mess by the end of it. We had to let Alana go to bed late because she had missed so much of the fun finishing her homework, and that was absolutely not fair (we all agreed).

So of course this made me think of my dad. We used to have rubber band wars in the house, running all around, shooting each other. In my recollection, it was just the two of us, but I could be misremembering. I’m pretty sure Mom never joined in, but Amy and Grace might have, a bit.

I wonder how old I was… maybe 5? Those were good times. Pure joy.

We also had “sock balls,” created by sewing up a pair of old socks into a ball. We threw those around a bit as well (they were quite safe), but they didn’t bring the level of excitement that the jumbo-size rubber bands did. (I wonder where Dad got all those rubber bands??)

A few years ago, Dad gave Isaac a sock ball that he had made himself. I’m going to have to find that thing… it feels much more precious now.