Whimsy.

Ryan and I were talking this morning about how kids seem to grow up faster and faster constantly.  Or at least want to.  But why?  It seems so silly to us now.  You can have so much more unpretentious fun as a kid. 

We still try to find moments of whimsy in our life all the time.  It's probably when we have the most fun.

Like the natural waterslides outside of Pittsburgh.  Or any water slides really. 

Then, imagine my delight when I saw a "Build-your-own Whimsical Sheet Castle" display at the Children's Museum later today.

Avi briefly honored us with his presence in the tent we were making, but was much more focused on his facepainting masterpiece..

{On a side note, I was really impressed with his facepainting today.  Look at that bright blue stripe straight down his nose to his chin, the use of bold colors, and the daring to add a hint of pink even just to bring out the other shades.  Just masterful.  I almost laughed when he pointed at the girl painting beside him "baby!" because she was at least twice his age and only had a few sad brown smudges on her face.  Oh, he is so precious.}

So, in true Hecker-Kumar fashion Ryan and I worked on the whole thing ourselves.  Getting a bit disheveled in the process.

I have to say though, the thing turned out pretty damn awesome in the end.  Before we got there it was basically just a pile of pillows and folded up blankets.  Avinash could stand up fully inside it and we could sit comfortably.  And of course, all the other kids wanted to play in it too afterwards.  Several random kids came up to me and asked where the footballs??? were.  I have no idea.

It was so awesome being reminded of my childhood.  We used to stack up the couch cushions and build sheet tents all the time.  Eventually we moved them to the basement so that we could expand their size.  Some of them stayed up for weeks!  We could play games and hang out with our other (equally dorky) friends..  Now I am so looking forward to doing that all over again.