These Days: A Picnic in Space

On a whim, we threw together a picnic yesterday afternoon and headed for the ampitheater (or, if you’re Simon and Ian “ampitheteor,” rhymes with “ampi-meteor”) at Pioneers Park. After lunch the boys wanted to show us their two forts (the spaces behind the bushes on either side of the stage), and we passed a lovely couple of hours flying in a ship commanded by Simon, co-piloted by Ian, and fueled up by Clara (although Clara forgot to do her job, so Simon covered for her). We landed on Mars, where Ian greeted us all, “Welcome to Mars. We live in peace.” And then we flew to Neptune, where the boys had a snowball fight. We also found a pirate alien spaceship that didn’t seem to go anywhere but did feature a plank — as in “Walk the plank!” — and a secret doorway, accessible only by “walking on your hands and arms.”