Playing pretend

Like a dream come true, all 5 kids (mine and Svea's) are playing in my yard, on a beautiful sunny day. They find a pile of tile squares (~1ft x1ft) sitting in a pile by the house.

Van: "hey want to play tile step!"
Everyone else: "Yeah!"

They quickly determine the groundrules. I tell them the tile squares can only be on the grass and not the cement. They determine that the grass is hot lava. Once they have 4 tile squares down in a line, they each stand on them. Van is one one end, then Finn, then Solvej, then Elin. Van picks up a tile, hands it to Finn, who turns and hands it to Solvej who turns and hands it to Elin who runs to the end of the line and adds it to path.
It's amazing to watch them organize so efficiently into an assembly line. They talk about how much hard work they are doing.
"We are working so hard."
"hard work, hard work"

Then once the pile is gone (about 20 tiles) they begin picking up the first tiles and adding them in interesting directions at the end.

"We made a letter T!" Van says at one point.

The boys like this part, especially Finn, who loves building things. The girls are a little less interested now. Solvej sits on one of the tiles and Elin rides a bike nearby.

Finn: "We are guards." Van agrees. They continue to build neat shapes by moving the tiles from one end of the line to the other.

Solvej: "I am the queen." She stands up authoritatively.
Elin: "I am the queen too." Elin calls from her bike.
Van: "You're the bike queen."
Elin: "No I am the queen too."
Me: "You could be the princess."
Elin: "I am the queen too." she gives up her bike and stands by Solvej to cement her position.
Solvej: "Shoulders! I am the queen. Bring me a necklace."

 (I wish there existed puncuation to convey how she said this. First, so much authority. And she says 'necklace' as if obtaining one is the most nefarious, yet serious task. It's as if she's just asked for someone to be beheaded to exact revenge on the behalf of her kingdom. She would make a great queen.)

Elin: "Give me a necklace."
Finn: "Yes queen. We will get you a necklace" in his robot/soldier/guard voice.
Solvej: "Shoulders, give me necklace; and make it red and sparkly."
Elin: "Mine blue and sparkly."

Anyway, the game goes on from there, but I am loving this new stage of playing pretend, especially on a group level.