Wild and Crazy Forth!

Hope found…

A. Grandpa’s Black Powder Rifle has an awesome smokey kick to it.

B. She was face painted at the park and this is all that was left of her raccoon mask at the end of the day.

C. Riding in Grandpas open-aired tractor through many a dusty field can leave dust in every nook and cranny of the body.

D. The dirt in Grandma’s garden sure beats the dirt in Mom’s garden.

Stay tuned to see what the real answer is.

I know, I know, I've been missing in blog-sphere action recently. I plead my crazy-busy week. The Crazy included spending 16 hours in my husbands small but fuel efficient car with my four youngest children squished together while traveling to see my folks in their neck of the forest. Prince Erik lobbied strategically for me to leave the two least annoying and much more mature Abner and T-rev with him as he would be staying home and didn’t want the house destroyed while I was gone.

Crazy escalated when the portable DVD player died just two hours into our long trek. I then can’t tell you how long we sang along with Veggie Tale Songs, played I spy and listened to mayhem before I cracked and bought a portable CD player with headsets so I could to listen to ‘Twilight’ and tune the kids out while they fought over who got to play the DS or complain about someone’s hair touching them to the point of annoyance. That and I seriously can’t tell you how many times Princess asked how much farther until we got to Grandma and Papa’s house. I’m back to the drawing board for the road trip home. That or I’m switching vehicles with Prince Erik and he can enjoy my little circus kids.

Needless to say the nightmare of a kid-squabbling road trip ended and I was grateful there were no tire mishaps like our trip last November.

Finally we arrived at my parents for an awesome 4th. The only thing that would have made it perfect was to have my whole family there and possibly eat some cherry pie. But since there’s no such thing as perfect I was hugely happy to enjoy the following.

PR (Wahoo!) as in Personal Record (at altitude in 80 degree morning heat to boot) of 31 min. 40 seconds, in my fastest ever 5K. Of course I ran in my parents little town race along with my brother Arrow, my 1st place finishing speed-walking marvel of a Mom and Lea and Evo-man. Meanwhile Princess, Hope and Sweetie consumed our after-race goodies for us.

Next we watched a good old town parade where they actually still throw candy at the kids. It helped that Grandma was driving one of the floats because she must have unloaded a half-box of candy right at the feet of her grandkids. Don’t know what she was thinking because those sugared up grandkids would be going straight back to her house to climb her walls and drive her crazy later.

Then it was off to the park...

where Grandma and Papa once again treated us to lunch – small town style (roast beef on buns with Pork and Beans and Corn on the Cob. The kids were still too sugared up from all the candy she unloaded on them so we were able to take lots of leftovers home.

Other highlight from my down home Forth included.

The kids and I podding peas from my parents still amazing garden.

Nothing tastes better than straight from the garden.

Running through the sprinklers.

And the answer is... Hope found Grandma's garden dirt so irresistably soft compared to my gardens harder than packed clay soil.

She couldn't resist taking a softer-than-baby-powder dirt bath. I wonder if she will add these ingredients to her future spa treatments?

And with all the clothes my kids went through in one day - well I happily put my parents clothesline to good use. I'm tempted to dig it out of the ground, strap it on to the top of my car and bring it home with me. Do you think they will they notice?

It appears that my mom is all tuckered out from dealing with me and my rascals.

Poor Dear. She only has to put up with us for another week.