Duck, Duck, Goose!

Friday evening, our neighbor Mary taught my kids how to play Duck, Duck, Goose. She started by asking them to sit in a circle. They tried, but it was more like a semi-circle.

They were not off to a good start.

They listened attentively as Mary explained how the game works, and were eager to begin. They promptly declared the person doing the tagging the "Ducker".

The first girl Mary tagged as Goose lunged to her feet, gauged the distance between herself and Mary and ran the shortest distance around the circle...towards Mary instead of chasing her. Mr. Adorable jumped to his feet too, and ran around in a few random circles in the yard before sitting back down in the circle.

Mary patiently explained the rules again, while I joined the circle to play too.

The second time around, the chosen Goose started chasing the "Ducker" in the right direction, but turned around and ran the other way again so she could beat the "Ducker" back to the empty place in the circle. She didn't want to lose her spot! Mr. Adorable jumped up when she did, and ran around the circle too, diving into her lap as soon as she sat down again.

When I could breathe between bouts of laughter, I helped Mary explain the rules again.

The third time around, my second oldest daughter was tagged. She cut right to the chase...right through the middle of the circle to tag the person who had tagged her. Mr. Adorable was close behind her, and dove into my lap.

I fell over, I was laughing so hard, and while Mr. Adorable helped me sit back up, Mary explained the rules. Again.

They finally got it.

Mostly.

My five-year-old circled around two or three times on her turns as the "Ducker", and included our neighbor's beagle in the circle, too. Mr. Adorable still charged around the circle full tilt every time anyone else did, and dove into whatever lap he wanted, but three or four rounds passed smoothly enough.

Until the second to the last round.

Daughter #3 went around the circle three times before she tagged Daughter #2 as the Goose, then ran as fast as she could around the circle to get back to her spot. Daughter #2 caught up with her before she did, however...and brought her down with a flying tackle that would have made Troy Palomalu proud.

The game ended shortly thereafter, called on account of ... ice cream for dessert. :)