Life is a game

It's Eid now. Again. This means that the schools have to close for 10 days or so. Given that they've only been going about 6 weeks, this is rather annoying. Also given that we seem to have spent the entire year flying around to all kinds of interesting places and that Steph has a broken arm in a non-waterproof cast, we have decided to spend the Eid break at home.
Which means finding stuff to do to entertain our 3 (dare I say it?) rather hyperactive monsters in and around home. Stuff that doesn't involve water. Or riding bikes. Or climbing things.
So - out with the board games.
On Friday morning, the first day of the holidays, Monopoly, the South African version, came out and made its home all over the dining room table. Good thing that the weather, except for today but more about that later, has been conducive to eating outside so we haven't missed our dining room table that much.
Steph has the luck of the devil - when she throws, she lands somewhere she wants to be. When she gets a card, it's a nice one: 'it's your birthday, everyone must pay you R10' not the one I normally get: ' building tax - pay R300 for each house owned'. Darrell plays to own as much property as possible and doesn't hesitate to play dirty to achieve this - except against Steph who he gives massives discounts to when he can't get out of charging her rent. Alex makes Darrell look like a beginner in the ruthlessness stakes. David opted out of a starring role, just doing the banking (pure maths, no messing around with cards and things). And I lack the competive edge, failing to take advantage of my opponents every weaknesses, being inclined to give them a hand up instead of a foot in the chest (unless said opponent is my darling hubby, in which case there are no guarantees). Also being distracted by food cooking, washes needing hanging, dogs spraying water over lounge furniture etc. Actually, from this long disclaimer, you may have gathered that I lost. It took 4 days for me to lose all my money and possessions, but manage it I did. Beaten only by Steph, who had lost interest and handed me her worldly possesions (2 mortgaged properties and a get out of jail free card) halfway through day 4.
This left Darrell and Alex to battle it out together. To cut it short (nearly 5 hours head to head), Alex won, but Darrell took it manfully and managed not to cry.
I am so relieved it's over. Tomorrow we will try backgammon round robins. I hope I beat someone, even if it's only Steph.
I'm also hoping for a repeat of today's weather. This morning we lay in bed enjoying the sight of rain beating against the bedroom window. And after 10 minutes, the rain had stopped. Of course, this is how long it took the kids to put on their cosies and Steph to get her arm tied up in a plastic bag, so they could run outside in the rain. So, since the rain had gone away, we put the dogs in the car and headed off to the beach for a walk - remember, Steph's arm was already waterproofed, so why waste the effort. Hardly had we left the car and started the walk across the sand to the receeding waters edge than it started to rain again. And blow. And got really cold. So Stepy and I retreated to the car and the boys and the dogs continued to the waves, where they surfed and swam and had a fantastic time. We got home from the beach, and it was still raining. I made lunch and it was still raining. We played monopoly (refer above) and it was still raining. Lovely, fantastic and wonderful. Especially to the kids as our streets aren't built to allow run off, so they were a tad flooded by the afternoon - perfect for a couple of boys on bikes.
We're hoping for a repeat from the heavens tomorrow, but that'll probably be one miracle too much.