Have circus, will travel

After we were refueled with pizza and Slurpees, we took the kids to Gilbert Run Park on Friday. I used to go to this park as a kid and it was just as I had remembered, sans the elementary school pillow sack races.

Nat loves the feeling of blood rushing to her head. I say she's the first who's going to figure out how to walk on her hands.

Dan, not so much on the hanging upside down thing. He said when he wants to be a monkey, he'll start eating more bananas.

And of course, Eve shows up to everything in a dress. If she joined the army, I imagine she'd arrive at boot camp in an evening gown.

I explained to the kids that when we ate our lunch, we needed to make sure we did not feed the geese. Geese are mean, and I have plenty of memories of being bitten between the fingers trying to feed them as a child.

The people at the picnic table behind us didn't follow my directions. It was like a zombie movie where a hundred ducks and geese were coming out of the water right at them. There were so many, I couldn't even get a picture with a tenth of them.

The people were surrounded and trapped. Geese are mean; I'm not exaggerating. Those suckers will come right after you, especially the white ones who think they are better than everyone else.

"We have the best picnic table, Mommy. We get to see the geese and the ducks and we don't have to share any of our food because those people didn't know the rules and now they're stuck there forever." That's right, Daniel.

On Saturday, we met my friend Brooke at her dad's house to go swimming. We needed an excuse to deserve another Slurpee. My dad ('Papa') has a camera with a lens the size of that mutant zucchini. We call him the Papa-razzi.

Nat: Why are we at someone's house? I thought we were going to the pool.

Me: They have a pool in their backyard.

Nat: Why don't we have a pool in our backyard?

Me: They aren't allowed in our neighborhood.

Nat: You don't have to tell anyone about it.

Me: Natalie, a pool would take up our entire backyard!

Nat: But you said you don't like yard work.

Me: We have a pool in our neighborhood we use all the time.

Nat: Well, Brooke's dad got HER a pool.

After more Ledo pizza and more Slurpees, my dad got some good shots of the kids in front of the biggest field of sunflowers I've ever seen. I can't keep a flower alive more than two days, so I'm easily impressed. Heck, I've even killed mint before, and that's a weed.

Of course, my kids were most interested in the beach.

Oh wait, that's not the beach. That's dirt on the side of the road.

You know Eve must have plenty of neutrophils if I let her go to Chuck E. Cheese and play in dirt on the side of the road in the same week.

The last night of my trip, I finished up two dresses for the girls. My mom, bless her heart, did her best to teach me to sew. You see, I've never sewed before. I use hot glue and staples. And, yes, I have hot glued and stapled fabric before.

2 dresses and 10 loaves of zucchini bread later, I ended my stay at Amish summer camp.