Life in the nut house

I just ran down the hall and did a ballet jump for no apparent reason.  Of course I never was a ballerina and am certainly not one now, so don't picture it in your head.  It was not pretty.  Both kids were staring at the TV during my burst of insanity, which occurred right in their line of vision.  Noah glanced at me, rolled his eyes, and said, "What are you doing, Mom?" in a disinterested way before going right back to the TV.  Sarah didn't even unglue her eyes from the TV. 

Transparent eggs

We were playing a rousing game of Brainopoly, and Sarah landed on a "Why did?" space, which requires the use of imagination to answer a question.  When Mike lands there, I give him the lowest level question, because we older folks haven't used our imaginations in so many years that they've mostly died.  After I give him the question, he thinks about it for awhile before giving some sensible, banal answer.  I give the kids the higher level questions, because their imaginations are amazing.  Noah used to be the king of imagination when he was younger, and he's still pretty good, but I see it dying a slow death.
 
Sarah's question was, "Why did the girl look surprised when she saw the eggs that the hen had laid?"  Sarah didn't even have to think.  She immediately answered matter-of-factly, "Because the shells were clear, and she could see the yolks inside them."

Lamb in heels

We were driving on a country road yesterday, and I mentioned that the clouds were pretty.  Sarah gazed into the sky for a full minute without saying a word, and then she announced, "I see a huge lamb on its back with its feet up, and it's wearing high heels."  I followed her gaze and immediately saw the lamb with heels.  I never would have seen it that way without her description, but she was right.  I didn't have my camera with me, so you'll just have to imagine it. 

This is what happens when school gets cancelled

This has been an unusually bad week of school, and everyone has had bad attitudes (especially the teacher).  As I was awake in the middle of the night thinking about it, I decided to take the day off and just enjoy each other.  Unfortunately (or fortunately), a big pile of dirt was delivered yesterday for the never-ending grading project around the house.

Notice the cat on top of the dirt pile.

He played mudball and even built a mud wall for his back foot so it wouldn't slip while he was batting.

Heading for the creek to wash off (Mom's orders)

Noah plunged right in and washed off all the mud.

Sarah was reluctant to go in, but Noah helped her.

And now for the hands and feet series....

Making a raft

We were so happy to finally see rain today.  The creek rose up high, and we were inspired to figure out a way to raft down it.  We couldn't find anything around here that would work, so we went to Farm & Fleet.  I wanted to buy a horse trough, but Mike said it wouldn't float with people in it.  I really wanted to buy a kayak or a canoe, but that was too expensive.  We were thinking about buying an inflatable waterski tube, but they were pretty expensive too, and I was afraid it would get punctured on the rocks.  Finally we ended up buying two inner tubes that are supposed to go inside truck tires.  They were very heavy duty but cheap.  After stopping at the gas station to inflate them, we were ready to go.

Mike tied the tubes together, and Noah and I took off down the creek and had a good time.  When we came back, we tried hooking a sled onto the tubes with bungee cords. That made a nice raft for Noah, and he went on a solo trip down the creek.

Jason ran along the bank all the way, keeping an eye on his buddy.  He loves to be with us wherever we are, so I thought he and Noah could go together.

Jason didn't really like that very much.  He didn't freak out, but he meowed a lot, so I pulled the raft over to the bank, and he scrabbled right out.  He still walked on the grass all the way downstream with Noah.

Epic failure

Last week, it was unbearably hot.  People always say you could fry an egg on the sidewalk when it's really hot.  I wanted to test the theory, but instead of frying an egg, I wanted to make dinner on the driveway.  I was planning to make pizza bread, and it was too hot to turn on the oven. So I put a piece of foil on the driveway in the direct sun and covered it with a glass pan.  I let the "oven" preheat for half an hour.

Then I put the pizza bread in the oven.  Twenty minutes later, the cheese wasn't even melted.  I don't think frying an egg on the sidewalk is really a possibility.  I brought the pizza breads inside and microwaved them.  I left the glass pan on the driveway and forgot about it, until Mike was backing out of the garage and we all heard a terrible shattering sound.  Glass went in the grass, into the street, and all over the driveway.  Eating soggy microwave pizza bread and cleaning up glass shards in the heat was not how this fun experiment was supposed to end.

Teletubbies

Sarah is watching Teletubbies on Youtube.  Just as I'm thinking, "Why is she watching the most asanine show ever created?", Noah comes in from outside, wearing his Star Wars clone trooper helmet.  It's 150 degrees out there, but he doesn't seem to notice.  What he DOES notice is what Sarah is watching.  He's saying, "I just sent the neighbor kid on a sniper mission, and...Oh! Teletubbies!  Can I watch with you?"  He whips off his helmet, and she scoots over to make room for him on her chair, and there they sit, fascinated by the unintelligible fat furry blobs.  What is the big attraction?

Meanwhile, Jason has killed a sparrow and left it on the doorstep. I go out and wrap it in a paper towel and throw it away before the garage gets full of feathers and the stench of death.  Jason doesn't appreciate my tossing his kill, and he punches me in the leg as I walk by him.  (This has nothing to do with Teletubbies, just thought I'd throw it in here).