Water Fight!!!

This was…dare I admit this?...my kids’ first water balloon experience. And as I told Addy, sometimes it takes 2 hours of preparation for 2 minutes of fun. Or so it seemed … Addy and I did finally get a system worked out, which included me not getting wet and everyone else getting wet. I’m so smart sometimes that even I’m shocked!

Henry was too cold, so he was hiding in the shaded garage, wet, waiting for us to get done. Not out in the sun. In the garage. He’s brilliant. He was also cold during the fight and somehow convinced his sisters to not throw balloons at him. I guess it pays to be the baby sometimes.

Addy and Kate both informed when it was over that they hardly got any of the water balloons to throw. You look at the pictures and be the judge.

Henry wanted another round about an hour later. I got about 3 million of these things at CheapMart, so guess what I have in store for me all summer?

this is how it begins...

...and this is how it ends

...and one more...because I had to...

Caged Animals

Our new friends invited us to the local zoo the other day. Some people know I'm not much of a fan of zoos. There is some tenderness inside me; I hate to see animals in their cages just for human entertainment. But...I'm trying to steal the Mother of the Year award from Kirsten, so I take my kids to establishments such as this. Actually, the zoo was pretty clean and the animals looked healthy, just...caged...so I was pleasantly surprised and my kids were so excited it seemed as if I'd never taken them out of the house. I mean, there was that one time...

Anyway, the kids really loved the farm section. Henry took off running to "visit" with this cow. He happens to be a fan of...milk...

Notice the looks of consternation as the kids are trying to feed bedding straw to the lambs.

Was there any part of this outing the kids didn't appreciate?

Even the wooden animal cut-outs...

My favorite part was the maps. The kids were so excited upon our arrival that they each took a map of the zoo - just a printout on a piece of copy paper. Anyway, Addy made it to the first exhibit, the geese, and as she was tossing corn to feed the geese, she also tossed her map. A few animals later and we were visiting the deer. Henry was trying to feed them some fodder of some sort or another, but they preferred to eat his map. We were down to one...Kate made it through the entire zoo with her wrinkled map; she wanted to bring it home to show Daddy all the animals that were resident for our viewing pleasure. She also brought her camera along and made it all the way through and home with that, but somehow the batteries went AWOL along the way.

Spring!

We experienced a true North Dakotan miracle today – perfect weather. I knew that I might not experience it again in my lifetime, so we seized the opportunity to play at a local park and ended it with a trip to DQ.

As you may have read from recent posts, spring has been a bit hesitant in arriving. I’ve am so happy to welcome it, at long last. The kids and I planted annuals last weekend – fun. We’re waiting for the very hesitant landscaper dude for our lawn. That will be a Great Day.

She actually made it all the way across. I don't think I learned that skill until I was 16. I promptly unlearned it at 17.

Henry made a poor clothing choice today.

Don’t you just love natural consequences? Henry doesn’t.

The Great Depression

The Great Depression was hard on many people in America. People got kicked out of their homes and sometimes even put in jail because they couldn’t afford their rent for their house. People would find a sign that said “Sheriff's Sale” outside their front door that meant that they would get kicked out of their homes. Some families were lucky though and got to stay in their homes even if their dad or brother lost their job. It was a miracle if nobody in someone’s family lost a job. Millions of people wrote to Eleanor Roosevelt asking for help during hard times. None of them expected an answer though since so many people wrote to her that they thought it impossible for her to answer all of them.

The Great Depression wasn’t exactly a lack of food, but a lack of money. The reason for this was since nobody had a lot of money they paid each other with food. But eventually people did start to run out of food because they got kicked out of their houses and had nothing to sell.

The Great Depression was like a line of Dominos. If one fell down then it knocked down the one in front of it and it kept knocking down another and another until eventually it went to people’s front doors with the “Sheriffs Sale” sign. The Great Depression was a very hard time in this point of history.


Written by Addison H. Carroll
On May 16, 2008

don't you love Addy? I love the thing at the end about the dominos going up to the front doors with the sign. She made that up. She's awesome.

Rehearsal and Promo

Here's a link to the newspaper's promo on the play

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T4wB-HICT1Y

The Drama Queens

The girls are in a play this week. They are having a great time and I'm wondering how I became such a good mom. It's a time vacuum.

Jeepers, creepers...where'd you get those peepers? Can you say stage makeup? Maybe I missed my calling...

Addy is bald in the play...you'll see more on the details of that later in this post.

The play is Snow White...not to be confused with...

A Group of Harlots...

Yes, Addy IS the witch....
...but the queen is more "witchy."
no explanation needed


The thing that makes Kate happy...makeup and a mirror

something that makes me happy...unknown boy in a really bad wig

Addy with her pig tails, which (as per her lines) are much better than being bald. Maybe Phil should try this style out
that's what she said...

Global Warming...Schwarming

Okay, so that sounds better in spoken word than written...not really, but I like the idea of it!

We woke up to a winter wonderland this morning; why couldn't this have happened on Christmas? On a positive note, we need the moisture and we did have two exceedingly beautiful days this week. Also, since I haven't lived here since the dawn of time, I'm not sick of the snow yet.

Good thing I didn't get flowers for those pots yet!

You Might Be a Redneck If...

...OR...when in Rome...

So, Phil wanted to take Henry to the races; and we decided to make it a family affair. I'm willing to try most anything once. The kids had a great time and so did Phil and I actually enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I would; usually the redneck thing isn't really my cup of tea.

The different kinds of cars

Henry staring at the cars...one was actually modeled after Lightning McQueen; how cool.

This guy actually works for Phil, but Phil didn't recognize him until he showed him his ID card. He does this every weekend, raising money for the burn unit in a children's hospital.
He made Henry a Lightning McQueen
and flowers for the girls



these little cars were driven mostly by teenagers - wowsa


Phil's favorite, the modified car.

My lame attempt at panning - hard to do without a monopod

the look of wonder, post hot dog