Warmy-Coldy / Coldy-Warmy.

One of our favorite around-the-house games to play, children (as you may already know), is Warmy-Coldy / Coldy-Warmy. This game is intended for any of four situations:

1. A player is cold and wishes to become warm (Coldy-Warmy, Warmy-Coldy);
2. A player is warm and wishes to become cold (Warmy-Coldy, Coldy-Warmy);
3. A player is inexplicably both warm and cold at the same time, for example, her toes are cold while the rest of her is warm (Warmy-Warmy, Coldy-Coldy); or
   
4. A player is too sleepy (or drunk) to clearly articulate what's going on, but it definitely has something to do with temperature.

Throughout our marriage, we have had occasion to play Warmy-Coldy / Coldy-Warmy, most notably when we find ourselves only partially covered by an exceedingly warm sleeping bag...

... when we don't feel like forking over any more money than is absolutely necessary to the heating company...

... and when we find ourselves on a stunning beach in the middle of winter.

You will be relieved to know, children, that I am not naked in any of these pictures, but in one of them, I am wearing a nightgown that is entirely concealed by the sleeping bag.

Of course, your father contends that the only thermometer a "real man" needs is a container of water, because for "real men," there are only two temperatures: below freezing and mesh jersey weather. Is it weird that I already miss winter?

Different Ways to Raise Your Hand.

One game we invented during our trip to the city was "Different Ways to Raise Your Hand." It is pretty self-explanatory, but the important thing to do is explain what kind of student raises her hand in the style you demonstrate.

This, for example, is the "Is he really asking us this, because who won't know the answer?" hand raise, demonstrated here by Janine and Alex.


Here, Alex shows us the "I've known the answer since before you gave all those extra hints and also I'm in fourth grade and have dunkaroos in my lunch, the thought of which is literally making me salivate right now."

Here's Janine's "Um. I know this one?"

And Lucia demonstrating the ever-popular "Yeaaahh. That'd be Dostoyevsky."