She's got a ticket to ride

While we played Ticket to Ride, Zoë and Alexander drew pictures. They are always so excited to draw while we play games. I'm not sure why. I mean, they always like to draw, but when we play games they really like to draw. 

Here's Zoë starting a wonderful story:

 

Here's Alexander showing off his picture of everybody holding hands:

He's done so well learning how to spell his name:

Here are a bunch of happy faces at the beginning of the game:

These kids are turning into some rather stiff competitors, though in the end Benjamin made a gamble that was a little too steep and Rachel aggressively cut Miriam off from Miami so there were a few tears. At some point after Rachel had built on all three routes into Miami, Miriam did something that warranted a high five, so I offered her one, but instead Benjamin reached out and slapped my hand (which, caused a few more tears on her part because not only was she cut off from Miami, she was cut off from her rightful high five). 

Alexander drew a self portrait of himself wearing his owl hat (while wearing his owl hat):

And here's Zoë's story:

Before she'd finished writing it she offered to read to us what she had so far. 

"Once upon a time, a grown up who was named Zoë (that's me) was looking for a job. And she found one: And it was..."

"What?" we all asked.

And instead of answering she just waggled her eyebrows mysteriously. 

"That's all I've got so far," she said.

"Well, you left us with a real cliffhanger there! We need to know what job this grown-up Zoë finds."

So she finished her story: "And it was teaching. But she gets bored of teaching. And she decided to explore."

This narrative was accompanied by a lovely picture of Zoë riding an elephant through the jungle (chasing after a monkey). Having just finished reading Range (by David Epstein), I thought it was so wonderful that she incorporated a career change into her story like that. 

May she never stop exploring.