Nicholas has been planning/designing/creating a game for a few months now. It’s a game that all the kids can play together, based on I have no idea what. All I know is he asked me for a piece of green cardstock and a long ruler to mark off squares on the paper. I saw the board/paper when he was finished, and was very impressed. If he did all his schoolwork as carefully and neatly as he had drawn the lines and designs on this board, his teacher would probably keel over from shock. 🙂
So, he had the goal to finish it while Oma was still here. I think he really wanted to be able to play it with her at least one time before she left. The main thing they had left to do was make the game pieces. I bought him some Fimo, in the desired colors, and he and Oma set to work making the figures. Sophie helped out as well, and did a beautiful job. In fact, hers turned out so nice, I am trying to find pottery classes for her to go. Sarah also wanted to help, but apparently her efforts did not meet Nicholas’ high standards. At least he was somewhat gentle when telling her her services would no longer be required.
Most of the Fimo went together very nicely, as it should. But the dark brown must have been kind of old, because it was very dry and crumbly, right out of the package. We added a few drops of water, and took turns kneading it, but it never did get a super good consistency.
Finally, Nicholas had to get to bed, but Oma soldiered on. She was determined to help Nicholas finish those game pieces. She could tell how much it meant to him, and she was ready to do anything to help him reach his goal. So she stayed up way, way past her usual bedtime, kneading, and molding, and sculpting. Her hands looked like she had been digging her way to China with no shovel after she was done. But Oma did it!
All the pieces were finished and ready to be dried in the oven before she left. Hurray! Nicholas was so happy when he saw them all lined up on the little plate on the table in the morning. And every time we play the game we will think of Oma and how she helped to make it possible. 🙂