Babysitting the Bedlamites

     A week ago Saturday (May 11th) we celebrated my son James' birthday. The party was held one day early as his actual birthday fell on Mother's Day this year. We had a little cookout at our house. I flipped burgers in the back yard. Linda made her wonderful potato salad and strawberry lemonade. We had two cakes. James' favorite cake is a dirt cake and he has had one on his birthday for years. Beth also made a coconut cake for the benefit of those looking for a more traditional cake. Dirt cake is a lot closer to pudding than cake. Following the customary cake and ice cream I was presented with an opportunity to babysit their children while James and Beth went to attend a Mystery Dinner Theater. I am always happy for the opportunity to spend quality time with grandkids so it was a pretty easy sell for them.

      While at the Tunnell home in Monroe I got to see first hand how the kids have been developing their climbing skills. I wonder if Grandma Cozy has told them the story of how she used to climb trees when she was a little girl.  When she lived in Detroit, Michigan there was a man who lived near them who would pay Grandma Cozy a nickle to climb down from the tree.  That was probably pretty easy money to a six year old. 

John Wesley Tunnell

Lucy Tunnell

    After the tree climbing demo we took a walk around the neighborhood so the kids could introduce me to the local characters and show me all of the finest tourist attractions in their part of Monroe.  The local characters consisted of Bruce and Captain.  Bruce being the rather outgoing owner of Captain, a large and very friendly golden retriever. Captain gave John such a face washing that would do any mother proud. Oddly enough, John didn't seem to mind having the mother of all lick washings.  The ultimate destination of our little walk was the bowling ball house. I have to admit I had a difficult time imagining just what I would see.  As it turned out, the bowling ball house is simply bowling balls run amok as lawn and garden art. There were probably close to 100 bowling balls stacked and placed throughout the lawn and garden area of the house. While on one hand it was kind of cute. On the other hand I don't think I want to try this at home.

Bowling Balls and Wheelbarrows

Bowling Balls and Tree

Bowling Balls and Bushes

     While I was driving to church early in the morning of May 12th, Mothers Day, I noticed this hot air balloon.  As it happened it passed very close to my route to church so I couldn't resist pausing for a few photos. I have no desire to go up in a hot air balloon but they rate pretty high on the picturesque scale. I'm glad that someone is nuts enough to want to ride in them.