Almost a Junk week

Enough time outdoors and it will put you under for a while, as was the case this week. It slowed us down but we still managed to sneak in a little edutainment. Spent some time on the bike trail and hit the library, although Sophia forgot to bring her books and if I recall was just doing cartwheels in the backyard and telling me that she was ready. We also had plenty of play-dates, with Merrick getting his first out of the house experience. I dropped him off at his friends house for four hours of four-year-old frenzy and told the not-overly-excited babysitter I would see her at noon. He had a blast. Sophia had her normal twenty some engagements including some friends over here, during which Merrick cut her hair and then chased her with the scissors (oh, he is busy sometimes). She then spent the rest of the afternoon at the friends house and pool. Tuesday we went mini-golfing and being the first ones on the course there was nobody in front of us to slow us down. Merrick took this as a challenge to run through the course. I think we finished 18 holes in about 16 minutes (excellent expenditure of twenty bucks). I could barely keep him in frame for a picture. No rain, which is a first for us although no hole in ones either. Wednesday morning found us at the Botanical garden, which has added a lot of new features. We chased/hid from each other in the maze and the world's fastest slide is still holding rank. I try to catch the kids when the came out, but was told Merrick was coming and then the kids switched. It is a blind catch at best and Sophia's additional mass came shooting out and through my hands. She only bit her lip a little. The kids spent plenty of time in the children's garden area watering the topiaries. We did stop for a picture opportunity in which the kids put their faces cut-out flowers. Merrick kept looking over the top, and I eventually just took the picture. He walked up to me all smiles, "hey dad, did you get a picture of my junk?" Yep, he is busy. We hit the bikes again this morning in search of grasshoppers--Mitch is getting hungry. We didn't find any grass hoppers big enough to catch for him but had a nice ride and lit off the last of our three fireworks. These were the parachute flares that shoot about twenty feet in the air and then parachute down with magnesium flares. The same ones I accidentally shot into my own trees on the fourth.