Well,somebody did. Thanks to a Facebook invite that someone sent Cari, we managed to snag an invite to some church's Easter Egg hunt! But this wasn't any ordinary hunt. The Easter Bunny was going to be in a helicopter throwing eggs out of it! Sounds dangerous to me, but then again, lots of things sound dangerous to me. Flying in helicopters, riding motorcycles, standing in the rain, eating a carrot...
Moving on...
They had a bounce house set up, and Zach of course couldn't resist. A good action still if I do say so myself...which I do.
All smiles!! That was one tough wall to climb up! Plus, it being 36 degrees outside didn't help either.
It almost looks like a toy. But there he was, high in the sky, throwing down candy goodies that the kids were trying to hoard. I tried to get a good shot of the eggs raining down but alas, twas not meant to be.
All in all, we had a pretty fun day. Now if the whistling sound will get out of our ears, that'd be even better! It literally was 40mph winds constantly. Still a fun time. I was trying to remember the Easters of yore and other than an egg hunt in Mamaw's back yard, a lot of it is just brief flashes. There is one picture out there from about 26 years ago of all us cousins. That day I remember.
Yes, due to me being able to use a two hour off coupon, I was able to go to Zach and Emmy's open house! Hence, the name of this post. Both of them were excited to have Cari and me go up and see everything they've been working on. And according to the number of pictures I managed to take, it was quite a bit:
All of Zach's class had to make flowers and put a picture of themselves in the middle. Well, leave it up to Zach to make the biggest flower known to man. His teacher was very impressed...and a little overwhelmed!
Hey Zach, say cheese. What? You need to make that face instead? (SIGH) Fine....
Here he had to write a story about a fish...a fish he named "Sunshine". I hadn't actually read this until just now, but it's very touching that he might be able to love someone or something that much.
Now...on to Emmy!
Here is a self-portrait in the same picture as Emmy. I'll let you figure out which one is which.
Here is the owl pellet that everyone had to dissect. What I didn't know is that they also had to re-construct the bones from the unfortunate mouse that happened to get eaten. Ugh...
Hey, I know those pictures!! This is the finished science project Emmy and her friend Ryann worked on ever so dilligently. Even though they didn't win first prize...or second...or third...or even an honorable mention...they did something a lot more interesting then some of the other projects. Trust me on that one.
Baseball season is SO about to begin!! 10 days I think. Plus, Zach and Emmy are about to start their YMCA baseball seasons next month. Plus, we are going to the April 7 game! Emmy is doing a Girl Scout parade and then we are going to the game afterwards. Someone somewhere started this campaign called "Silence For Josh". Of course I'm referring to Josh Hamilton, who left us to go play for the Angels. Some will cheer, most will boo, but someone had a good idea to not do anything when he's batting. Just the way he left last year really rubbed us the wrong way. When you tell your boss you will see what offer you get and then left us know so we can match it, and then you don't, you come across as a liar and someone not of their word. He claims to be a man of God, but what he really is is a man of Josh. Josh comes first, everything else second. His wife deserves to be sainted with all she has had to put up with over the last several years. It's okay though. I really like the Ranger team that will be taking the field in 2013. Now that the headaches are gone, now we can get back to business of winning the Big One.
Yes, our 2 day adventure in Shreveport had to come to an end eventually. In this case, after two days. But we managed to have a lot of fun and even though we lost most of our gambling cushion, we didn't lose the farm. If we had a farm that is. We wouldn't have lost it if we had it. There we go. A few pix:
Apparently you can get drunk on too much money. The $1,000,000 wall at the Horseshoe Casino! A bunch of hundreds in sequential order! Must have been special ordered from the mint. I'd like to see the fool who'd try to steal this one.
Ahh, relaxation! This room looks identical to the one we had last year. So...I guess all of them are exactly the same...no matter which one you go to. Kind of a letdown I gotta say.
Here we see Jerramy (yet again) take advantage of the free lunch buffet we won when we registered as new players at Horseshoe! Since I lost $30 there that night and the buffets for me and Cari added up to about $37, I figured we came out ahead. Man that place was huge. Endless rows of anything we wanted. I think I got my money's worth. I know it was hard to move afterward.
These I found at the really good beef jerky / BBQ place on the way home. I don't remember Mamaw making pies like this. She did know how to make some yummy things though.
So, we came back, and after going in late Wednesday, we had a St Patrick's Day party up at work! I won a few tickets but I guess I didn't win anything. Was funny to watch people do this though:
What? No pictures of me? Wait, here's one....
This shirt is...I don't know. Maybe stripes aren't my thang.
So I get home Friday to find out that Cari got roped into chaperoning this lock in for the Girl scouts. So, while they were overnighting it at the church, Zach and I had the house to ourselves. So...what better time to break these out:
Toys of course! I've had this box for over 15 years...all I needed was the boy who was mesmerized by it all. I think we played for about an hour before he Zach wanted to fight, which consists of him sitting on my back and hitting me over and over. But I haven't played with those for a while. Was good to get those out.
So...the next morning while Cari and Emmy went to see this:
...which Zach and I had no real interest in seeing, so I took him to Dunlop park where they have these really neat bike ramps. Well, Zach thought he wanted to ride his scooter on them but it's easier with a bike, so instead we took a nature hike:
There's all these house foundations that look like they were knocked down or never completed. Kind of spooky if you're alone. Fortunately I had my boy with me to keep me safe. After hiking and playing some hide and seek we went to McDonald's for a guy's lunch. Was a really good day. I've mentioned before how I always feel like time slips away quicker and quicker as kids get older. Hopefully we'll have more days like this. Can't wait to go to Hurricane Harbor this year! It's been 21 years!
Not a whole lot going on this week. Emmy got to do a scavenger hunt with her volleyball team so it was just Zach Cari and I. We had a yummy lunch at Pot Belly's but before that While Cari was looking around in a store, Zach and I decided to snap some shots at the big long creek in the middle:
Oy. Why do kids close their eyes just as the camera gets the shot?? Okay, let's try this again...
Aww, what's the use? Zach's gonna be that kid in every picture playing 'eyesies closies', ya know? But I do like these shots. Nothing like a little father son time. I wish I had more shots of Emmy and me, but it seems like she's always off doing something with someone. Ah well.
Me: "Hey Zach, wanna watch me do a high dive?"
Zach: "Um...I would advise against that Dad."
Me: "Really? How come? Give me one reason."
Zach: "Well, considering the water is about 9 inches deep AND it's kind of chilly outside AND you could break something."
Me: "I said give me one reason..."
Still not sure what we were trying to accomplish with this one. I don't wanna say he was vogueing...cuz..that's kind of feminine...maybe posing?
Emmy's science project is still plugging along:
Even though the squirrel tried its best to ruin Emmy's work, we managed to keep the plants in the pots. I'll have the final pictures next week.
In about 16 hours we will be on our way to Shreveport!! Cari's parents are taking the kids to Tyler for 4 days! I wish I could have gotten more time off of work but I got Monday and a half day Wednesday, so...maybe one day my office will learn how to give people time off in a fairer manner. One day I say...
Yes, I stole a line from "The Hamptons" episode of Seinfeld as a pre-cursor to the time of a kid's school career when they must do...
A science experiment.
Emmy and Cari and me discussed a lot of possibilities, and then we came up with a pretty cool one: get four yellow pansies, plant them in different pots, then water them with a different liquid and see which one does the most damage and one with the least damage. And here they are:
We diluted water with Tylenol capsules!
Vinegar! Man this stuff stinks.
Coffee!! People say coffee grounds are good for plants, so we shall see!
And finally...
Root beer!! I think the carbonation might be a little more than a plant can handle.
So far the vinegar seems to be the absolute worst thing to give a plant...like...ever. I'll have some new pictures next week so we will see what the damage is. Of course, the project took a major detour in its' progress as we had a visitor come to us via our fireplace. A bird? Nope. A squirrel!! That's right, a renegade squirrel managed to work its way into our previously bird-proof cage that John and I had wired shut a few years ago and got stuck behind the fireplace! It managed to get out and live behind our computer desk for like 2 weeks with no one noticing, until I got home one night and all of Emmy's plants were knocked over. Apparently it tried to get through the kitchen window and couldn't. We managed to get it out with Branda and Jerramy's help but the darn thing just would not leave! Finally it did, and as it scampered out the front door all I could think was, I used to think you guys were cute. And now...vicious, cold blooded killers. Dumb though. No wonder you see squirrel pancakes all over the street.
I remember in 6th grade we had to do a science experiment. I did something with water and boiling it and when you boiled it then cooled it real fast it made fog inside a bottle. Gaw was that 26 years ago? Anyways...dumb me put a plastic water pitcher on a hot plate and no one noticed until I picked it up and all this blue goo started oozing from it. Oh geez...I really wish I possessed common sense when I was a kid. We all say it, but if we knew then what we know now...(sigh).
