Sorry Alana! I'm stealing box #9. Current Standings Player #1 (Lisa) has Box # 3 (Denise's stolen from Karen) Player #2 (Mariann) has Box #12 (Lainey's stolen from Carmen) Player #3 (Denise) has Box # 2 (Mariann's stolen from Karen) Player #5 (Tracy) has Box #14 (Frozen-Alana's box stolen from Sue) Player #6 (Karen) has Box # 9 (Pat's stolen from Alana) Player #7 (Sue) has Box #5 (Tracy's, stolen from Lisa-frozen) Player #8 (Shirley) has box #10 (Carmen's, stolen from Barb) Player #9 (Pat) has Box #8 (Frozen-Shirley's) Player #10 (Carmen) has #1 (Lisa's, stolen from Karen) Player #11 (Becky) has Box #13 (Margaret's, stolen from Mariann) Player #12 (Lainey) has box #7 (Sue's) Player #13 (Margaret) has box #6 (Karen's stolen from Denise) Player #14 (Alana) has # Updated Number of Possessions Lisa- box 9, 5, 3 Mariann- box 12, 13, 3, 12 Denise- box 5, 12, 2, 5, 6, 2 Tracy- box 12, 14, 12, 14, 4, 8, 14 (frozen) Karen- box 3, 1, 3, 2, 9 Sue- box 3, 8, 14, 5, 8, 14, 5, 3, 5 (frozen) Shirley- box 10 Pat- box 8, 4, 8, 14, 8 (frozen) Carmen- box 12, 14, 12, 5, 1 Becky- box 13 Lainey- box 7 Margaret- box 8, 2, 6 Alana-box 3, 9 Alana's turn. Alana, have fun with your family gathering!

I've been reading this thread since it was posted with trepidation, waiting for the "good ole days" comments and general bashing of current parenting methods; guess I didn't have to wait too long. My early childhood, we played outside all the time, including with the neighborhood kids, or at least I did as much as I was able too. All the kids in our 2-3 block radius were boys my brothers age or older. While I wanted to play, I was seen as the annoying kid sister so I was frequently left playing by myself. When I was 9 we moved into the "country", an established neighborhood 30 minutes outside of town. Everyone lived on a few acres and there were only 2 other "kids" in the entire neighborhood, 2 teenage boys who would hang out with my brother on occasion, but I was still mostly left in the lurch. We were allowed to ride our bikes to the general store a few miles away or go hiking in the canyon, but only together, we didn't really have other playmates. Now, as a mom of 4 kids living in the same neighborhood, I eschew "play dates" but encourage my kids to be active and outdoors. The neighborhood has 2 other families that have children close in age to ours but both parents work and the kids are in daycare/babysitters. My kids playmates are, by and large, each other. Chisue brings up a good point about stay at home moms and sheilajoice added important points as well. Women's lib movement made it possible for ANY woman to accomplish ANYTHING she wanted and I am eternally grateful for that BUT....with it came a flooding of the market with both men AND women capable of doing the jobs. Supply of qualified workers increased and demand didn't follow suit which basically means you've got 200 people qualified to fill these 100 positions. Basic rules of supply and demand means that more workers than jobs drives wages down which means everyone has to work twice as hard. Most families these days don't have much of a choice. Both parents must work to meet ends meet. If the mom stops working to be a SAHM she loses her career advancement. If she (or he) becomes a stay at home parent and the marriage dissolves, they can't just jump back into their career. It isn't about material goods, its about being able to support yourself. I'm taking a "huge risk" in my friends eyes by relying on my husband and believing our marriage will continue to work because, "what if?". How will you support yourselves and the kids?!? Also, my parents, your parents and I suspect most of you when you were parenting young children, did not have to deal with social media, the internet, etc. Very real issues that almost all parents must deal with these days. I'm the "curse" on our elementary school because, as far as I'm aware, I'm the only parent who has said "no, I do not authorize my child or their works to be displayed on the internet." There are different challenges presented to today's parents, and we are doing the best we can in an ever changing world. Here in 20 or 30 years we will get to listen to our kids complain and/or we ourselves will opine for the "good ole days" the same way every other generation has but the bottom line is, we are just like you. Doing the best we can with what we have.

Eh...I don't do "playdates" like that and I'm not personally aware of anyone in my social circle that does either. I live in a neighborhood of 60 homes. Out of those 60, I believe 10 have children. Five of them I know for a fact because the kids are in my kids grades. One mom and I are very friendly with each other and it is not at all uncommon for us or them to be out on a walk, see each other and end up playing together. I won't allow my kids to go knock on her door and she doesn't let her kids come knock on mine because we are both really busy and sometimes it just isn't convenient. We will text each other though, "you and the kids want to come over?" Or "out for a walk, mind if we stop by?". I guess the modern day equivalent of knocking on the door and asking to play. Our kids aren't old enough to run free yet but I see plenty of 10-15 year olds riding bikes or driving golf carts. Some of them I don't really approve of but, cest la vie. The rest of my kids friends live too far away to ride bikes to so yes, we once again have to contact parents and then one of us has to drive to the others place. But that is never scheduled more than a few hours to a day or two in advance. I don't like things being overly scheduled so I try to plan for no more than one event per weekend. It's leave plenty of free time for living!! Doing things like playing in the backyard with the kids when our friends ride by on their bikes and they end up playing while mom and I visit. ;) As far as weekends go, mine are already booked up until the end of July. We have friends visiting this weekend, a family event the next, my girls weekend after that, followed by our family vacation. So right now I have been joking with my friends that we aren't available until the end of July but that only applies to weekends. Some of them are busy households with 2 working parents so they aren't available during the week but my teacher friends and other stay at home mom's are and we will see each other and catch up this summer.

I'm so sorry, but it doesn't look like I will get to more plant part questions. Perhaps I can try it again one month when I am hostess again. Congratulations to Nicole who won our Gardener's Derby Game and to Emily who is clearly first in the Plant Parts Game. I'll get little prizes send out early in June. Thanks to everyone for posting comments, pictures, and participating! We continue to have storms off and on and the humidity these past few days has been horrid. I heard someone say it is so oppressive because of two air masses that came together - all I know is you can hardly stand to be outside. Meanwhile, I'm arranging more times to get roofers and other people out here to evaluate damage and schedule repairs. The roofers can return on Monday which is great. The back part of the roof hasn't been repaired yet and I started getting interior leaks which correspond with where they still need to do repairs. This tree episode has been a nightmare, but the services I dealt had some very nice people to deal with so that has been much appreciated. (However, I'm glad I called LOTS of them because here it is over 2 months later and I haven't even gotten a return call from some of the tree services. I know they are busy, but they need to leave a message or something about how backed up they are.) Here's a picture of my gladiolus that's in bloom today. My plants seem to have loved all the rain. Of course, we have very sandy soil so they don't stay waterlogged in it.