Why Kill Em' When You Can Wear Em' Out!

Well, after the boys drove me nuts last night, I decided to wear them out today in hopes that they might get to bed early. Although, EBay was pretty tempting, I decided Splash Zone might be a little more appropriate. Splash Zone is a public pool in a nearby town. (about 10 miles from my house!) It is a super cheap way to waste the day and tire out your kids. The cost to get in is only $4, and the joys of riding the water slide is only $1 more! So for a mere $14 we were on our way to an afternoon of fun.

I highly recommend clicking on the photos to enlarge them

The kids had a blast. The first place they headed to was the water slide. Here they are waiting for their turn in line. Yeah, that was some line. Nathan went first.

I couldn't believe my camera would zoom in this well. After Nathan launched himself, I couldn't tell if this was a look fear, or concern on Forrest's face. But whatever it was, it didn't stop him from following his brother down the shoot.
I stood at the bottom of the slide, snapping photo after photo, in hopes of catching that perfect shot of them coming out of the tube.

But this was the best I could get of Nathan.
And this was all that I could see of Forrest.
I started timing them to see how long it took them to get from the top to the bottom. I had the timing down perfect with this next picture, unfortunately, the kid wasn't one of mine.
There was a short diving board at one end of the pool. Forrest really enjoyed it and was doing some phenomenal dives from it. One of the lifeguards was also a swimming coach and he approached me and told me that my kid was an excellent swimmer. Of course I beamed. I told the life guard that everything he knows about swimming, he learned from his Mom! Look! I caught this super shot of Forrest suspended in mid air.

Nathan was somewhat afraid of the spring board. He approached the end of it with extreme caution. But he is equally as good of a swimmer as Forrest, he just lacks in the diving skills department.



We decided to take a short break from all the water fun, and grab a bite to eat.
Forrest decided the top of the picnic table made for a great place to stretch out and relax.
While Nathan, invented his own idea of a Bed and Breakfast. Except in this case it was Bed and Brunch.
After our bellies were full, we decided to take it easy under the waterfalls, where the boys played with their new friend. The tall boy in this picture has Asperger's Syndrome, a form of Autism. He took right up with me. And followed me around for much of the day. And he very quickly warmed up to Nathan as well.















Our fun ended abruptly when someone found some turds floating in the water on the other side of the fountains. So the entire fountain area had to be shut down to be relieved of it's doo doo and sanitized. I took that as the perfect cue to gather my brood and head home.

INSANITY.

MY KIDS ARE DRIVING ME NUTTS!!!!



CAN I KILL THEM?

Potato

Well, Girl Potato and Boy Potato had eyes for each other, and finally they got married, and had a little sweet potato, which they called 'Yam. Of course, they wanted the best for Yam. When it was time, they told her about the facts of life. They warned her about going out and getting half-baked, so she wouldn't get accidentally mashed, and get a bad name for herself like 'Hot Potato,' and end up with a bunch of Tater Tots. Yam said not to worry, no Spud would get her into the sack and make a rotten potato out of her! But on the other hand she wouldn't stay home and become a Couch Potato either. She would get plenty of exercise so as not to be skinny like her Shoestring cousins. When she went off to Europe, Mr. and Mrs. Potato told Yam to watch out for the hard-boiled guys from Ireland; and the greasy guys from France called the French Fries, ... and when she went out west, to watch out for the Indians so she wouldn't get scalloped. Yam said she would stay on the straight and narrow and wouldn't associate with those high class Yukon Golds, or the ones from the other side of the tracks who advertise their trade on all the trucks that say, 'Frito Lay. Mr. and Mrs. Potato sent Yam to Idaho P. U. (that's Potato University ) so that when she graduated she'd really be in the Chips. But in spite of all they did for her, one-day Yam came home and announced she was going to marry Tom Brokaw. Tom Brokaw! Mr. and Mrs. Potato were very upset. They told Yam she couldn't possibly marry Tom Brokaw because he's just......Are you ready for this? Are you sure? **OK! Here it is!****


A COMMONTATER

Passion Fruit Anyone?

Much to my delight and pleasure, our new property is covered with this vine. I am going to go out there tomorrow and take some photos. And then I'm going to mow. But I am not going to mow all of the passion fruit away. I love these flowers. They are gorgeous and they smell wonderful. We will have passion fruit growing out of our ears. I think I may have to look up recipes for passion fruit pie. And I have seen passion fruit drinks too. I wonder if it mixes well with rum? Hell, doesn't everything mix well with rum? Passiflora incarnata Purple Passionflower has several common names including Passion Flower, Purple passionflower vine, Apricot vine and May Pops. Passion Flower is a very attractive sprawling or climbing vine up to 20 feet long with edible fruits and flowers. The unusual flowers are 3 inches wide with several petals and a purple fringe and have a rich fragrance resembling that of carnations. The smooth, round 2 inch fruits are edible and turn yellow when ripe. Passion Flower vine is attractive on a garden trellis, fence, hanging over a wall or sprawled on a slope.
Passiflora incarnata Passion Flower seeds are slow to germinate, they contain a natural chemical that slows their germination.

Art,Gorillas, Flowers, and Paper Air Planes.

We decided to take it easy this weekend and we stayed at home quite a bit.





We had little trouble staying preoccupied, after all, I have a house full of art supplies.





We began our weekend with drawing.

This is Forrest's picture. He claims that it is a rookaburro (I think he meant Kookaburra) with a hat on it.

Nathan told me that his is a Crab Car Bat Bird Ultimate Mystery Barrow. (What ever that means.)

After drawing, we color coordinated our toy gorillas.

Can we all say Obsessive Compulsive Disorder together?

By Saturday evening we were a bit bored, so we took a little road trip to our new land and fed the catfish in the pond. We were pleasantly surprised to find these delicate purple flowers covering the ground.

If you want to read a wonderful story about the memory these flowers brought flooding back to me, then you can go to Suzanne's Birthday Blog.

And now much to my chagrin, it is Sunday. We went and had a wonderful Mexican Lunch at Cozymel Mexican Grill. And then returned home to make paper airplanes.

This is Forrest showing a close up comparison between the plane I made for him (the smaller streamline one) and the plane he made for himself.
Nathan was all smiles when I finished making his paper airplane.
See look and the stream lines. Yep, it made a few loop tee loops and then crashed to the floor.
This is Nathans Boat Airplane. Of course he made it by himself.
Forrest was taking aim for a precision flight.
Forrest was very proud of the plane he made for himself, and I must say, I was impressed too.

So that concludes our weekend funitudes. Now we have to get ready and go to open house at school. Wish me luck! Have a great remainder of the weekend, and as for my Aussie friends, have a fabulous Monday.

The Essence of Me

The Essence of Me

I’m a free spirit with a bubbly air,
But sometimes I am sad.
I am happy go lucky, and quick to smile,
But stay away from me when I’m mad.
I’m an untrusting soul,
But I’ll say hi to any stranger,
I have many fears
And try avoiding danger.
I am quick to judge,
And I make many errors,
Losing a child
Is my greatest terror.
I let you be you,
Please, let me be me.
We’re really not so different,
We’re all human beings.

And that's the essence of me.

Happy Birthday Suzanne!

So tomorrow is her birthday,
that blogger whore we all call Blottie.
Yes, I'm totally jealous of her,
because she's married to a hottie.

But she's really quite a woman,
I've grown to know and love.
And for having her in my life,
I thank the stars above.

Even though she's turning 49,
She only looks like she's 48.
And I must try to be honest,
She's a good reason to celebrate.

So come on over to The Wild Onion
And pour yourself a beer.
And join us for a party,
filled with joy and great cheer.

She's a special friend to many,
if you meet her, you'll be a fan.
Of course I'm talking about you,
our dear ol' Suzanne.

The Buffalo River Float Trip

We put our raft into the river at about 10:30 am. We were all very stoked about the trip.


High bluffs were scattered along both sides of the river.

The boys were well equipped to spend a safe day on the river.
No their profiles don't look the same to me. Surly you couldn't tell that is Nathan's dad.

Nathan decided it was too hot to stay in the raft, so he decided to bail out into the river and float along beside it.

Seconds later, Forrest did the same. He loves rocks, so immediately he began searching for specimens to take home.
HB stayed at the bow of the boat. He was our navigator.
The scenery was breath taking.
Yep, that looks like a keeper.
I was all decked out in my tourist garb, even though we were only a few hours from home. Actually, I was trying to protect myself from the sun. Since I'm made of sugar, I melt in the heat.

I wasn't the only natural beauty that could be seen on the river. There were several little caves and very neat rock formations.

Turtles were very abundant.

HB caught this little critter and showed it off to the boys.

Isn't he cute. I wished very much to bring him home and keep him as a pet, but I knew he would be happier left here in the wild. So don't worry, we put him back into his home and he was not harmed or eaten.

Some more natural beauty along the river side.

Nathan says, "Peace out, Ya'll.