rainy day play

We woke up to snow, and now it's just windy and rainy and the snow has cleared away and I am delighted in how my kids are playing inside today (and yesterday). Some of the cute ways they play together make me long for the days of being little. Little, but with a big sister to have fun with. We would play together, and fight a lot while we played I'm sure, but we played well together sometimes too, and it made for good memories. Watching my kids this weekend during this winter storm, during their forced inside play (because they're big outside-ies) has just reminded me of that fun time of being little - when playing BANK was a huge deal. We made checks. We made fake money. We used some of our real money. We talked really professionally to each other, like those classy people in banks do. We said "ma'm" and "sir" even though we didn't have a "sir" to play with, because we were a sisters-only family.
Did you play bank when you were little? How funny that banks seem the pretend play choice - like the perfect thing to do when you're little - before you realize what playing bank for real mean: bills, checks, limits, wishing you had more money. When I played bank when I was little, my funds were limitless. I don't like to play bank anymore.
So, Alyssa and Jack are playing bank right now. Actually, Alyssa informed me they're playing "you know, it's like a bank slash store." Bank/store. Got it.
I said, "So, what's the name of your bank slash store?"
She said, "We named it 'Cats Are Meow And So Are These'."
Huh?
I cannot make this stuff up.
Cats are meow and so are these.
So are what? I don't know. I didn't ask.
This reminds me of my college roommate Dena. She told me when she was little she and her sister Derria would play bank slash store (okay, she didn't say they played bank slash store, but they probably played store, or bank, or country store, or cowboy bank, because they're Colorado people) and Dena chose the same name for herself all the time. What was her pretend play name? "Log Fencepost." First name Log, last name Fencepost. I remember when we were having the giggles one night in college, when she told me this story, it made me laugh so hard. SO hard. I giggle every single time I say "Log Fencepost."
Now I'm going to go upstairs and write a pretend check, sign my name Log Fencepost, and try to cash it in at Cat's Meow and So Are These Bank/Store.