that one time i was really really old

Yesterday at work I had a funny conversation with a kid (surprising, I know). We were on the playground, and he'd fashioned himself a 'birthday cake' out of a pile of woodchips and some sticks. After he sang Happy Birthday to himself, I asked how old he was. One hundred years old!, he replied.

"One HUNDRED??" I responded. "100 is REALLY old. You would be a very old man. You would have a cane!"

Oh. Well...how about if I am NINETY?

"Ninety is still really old. You would not be able to hear and you would talk like this [here's where I talked in an 'old man voice' for a minute]"

Oh...well, what about being TEN? Is TEN really old?

"Ten? Nah, if you were ten, you could still go to our school! You might be in fifth grade!"

We went on like this for awhile...he suggested that he might be ONE BILLION YEARS OLD, and I had to tell him that no one can ever be that old, because they would be dead. Why? Because your body would break. And I can't explain it any better than that. (But what about ten thousand, Mrs. B? Could I be ten thousand? Nope, you'll still be dead.) When he asked about being 30, I had to make it sound really fantastic.

"THIRTY???!?! Wow, thirty is like SO AWESOME. If you were THIRTY you could maybe be a teacher...or a fireman...or a doctor...or a mom...you could be anything!!! Thirty is just like being a regular grown-up."

He was dead onto me. Mrs. B...are you thirty????

Well...almost. I hope it's as great as I've made it out to be.

Then he was all "what about 31?? What about 33??" and it was tough to explain that there aren't very many differences between about 25 and 50. Sorry bud.

Anyway!! All that to say that my little conversation inspired my Way Back When-sday! Halloween is right around the corner, and every year our church does a little Costume Bowling gig at a local bowling alley. It's lots of fun. Back in 2007, Matt and I were a) recently married, b) recently started attending our church, and c) babysat every Sunday night. We babysat for a family whom I worked for for years as a nanny/babysitter. These kids were the love of my life, and once Matt met them, he loved them pretty awesomely too. 

It happened that our Costume Bowling fell on a Sunday night, the night we were supposed to babysit them. Which may have provided part of the inspiration for our costumes that night:

Granny and Gramps take the grandkids bowling!!! Woohoo!!

Yes, we dressed up like old people. I have no idea why we thought that might be a good idea. I do remember having a lot of fun picking out Matt's clothes, though. Mine weren't so fun. I was fresh out of Mom Jeans, so what else could I possibly wear? (Answer: some VELVETEEN pajama pants of Matts, pulled up to my chest, with a tucked-in t-shirt. Obviously.)

Don't our grandkids look happy to be with us? (Yes, the blondes are twins.)

HOW TOTALLY CUTE is ol' grampy Matt??? Pretty sure that's MY cardigan he's wearing. Apparently we're some kind of cross-dressing grandparents...the life of the retirement home, for sure!!

Poor Gramps. All that bowling plum wore him out.

PS. Don't worry. In order to make up for my unattractive costume of 2007, in 2008 I wore my wedding dress to the bowling alley. Yep! True story! I was a bride!!! (And many people actually asked: Is that your REAL wedding dress?? And I was like...no...I bought a NEW one just to wear to the bowling alley! Um...duh...???)