Balloon Fiesta Bust 2012

 Here we are - such a good looking group. We were bundled up warm, at the Balloon Fiesta Park dark and early with time to spare. We had gotten packed and loaded up and to the park like seasoned pros. And then the winds proved too...windy...for the balloonists and their crews and that was that.
Bust.
It's okay because we brought kites to fly. Amy brought this awesome dragon one...

 ...it refused to actually fly. We're still not sure if it was a mechanical failure or user error.

 Believe it or not, as the sky lightened it actually got colder so after much whining and sadness, we left the park without having seen a single balloon inflate.
Back at home the kids warmed up and hung out for a short hour before we had to head to soccer games.
Aren't Bekah and Sarah so cute?! Sarah had gotten her face painted the week before and it still wouldn't come off. It was an awesome little rainbow skull.

 Amy and I worked on crafts, of course. We made an adorable little fabric tote complete with pockets and zippers, and we also made this witch boot. (I found the pattern on pinterest, where else?) I would like to say that Amy loved this project, but she didn't. Well, she loved the finished product, but she didn't like cutting the paper to match the wood boot and had the gall to criticize the wood-cutter (me!). She was mad that I didn't cut it out exactly like the pattern so she could use the pattern to make the paper pieces. Hmph. I redeemed myself by finishing it for her before she left. And it's GREAT. So there.

On Friday night we were at the elementary school playground for Bekah's soccer practice. Joshua and Luke and I ran around playing with a football (still one of the greatest things I learned from cross country practice - how to throw a football), and Mikey and Beau rolled down the hill. Later Amy was running to get a ball and wound up taking a wood chip to the bottom of her foot. It went through her croc flip flop and into her foot. Yuck. At home I delicately tried to get any pieces of the wood chip out while Amy held on to Mikey for dear life. I think Amy thought she was going to die. She didn't. I said "delicately," right?
Anyway, the next day Amy and I decided to play a trick on the kids. We had bought a "gorey flesh" kit from Target and used it to make it look like the wood chip had shot out the top of her foot. We fooled the kids for about ten seconds.

Then they all got in on the action and became scarred zombies. Creepy, huh.

Luke's face was my favorite.

And that was pretty much the end of our weekend. The balloons were a flop but the company was great. The boys spent hours outside finding tarantulas, playing in the ditch and digging in the dirt. Bekah and Sarah disappeared into Bekah's room (aka "Ground Zero") for the whole time. Marianne was a terd, but a cute one who will like people more in a few more years. And Amy compensated for her whining later by forgetting her dual-waffle-maker. We've enjoyed it often, thankyouverymuch.