TRYING to Stay Out of Trouble

The deck project got underway - in a big way - in the last week.  The deck was framed on Tuesday and Wednesday.  Then, Brad and his friends got down to work putting in the rain gear system.  The rain gear turned out to be a "bit" more of a project than the guy at The Deck Store said it would be... but Daddy's pretty sure it will pay off.  Here are some pictures "in progress":

Looking East

Looking West

Our friends have been amazing as this gets underway... Bob F., Scott T. and Greg K. were here helping put in the rain system (mainly Bob F.) -- thank you!!  But the Coady's brought dinner one night, and the Falk's managed to drag Brad to "The Strip Club" (it's a steak place - really - look it up!) one night.  This totally kept some sanity in the picture!

With all the mess in our backyard, Mommy has been challenged with entertaining the girls while they are awake.  This leads to a LOT of "girl power" adventures!

On Saturday, we went to Addie & Kiki's house to swim in their pool, play in the water table, play in the sprinkler, play on the slip-&-slide, play in the playhouse and have a picnic.  Neela also got her nails done by Addie (she did an AWESOME job).  In the afternoon, the 3 big girls had a movie date in our basement - while the 2 little girls slept.

On Sunday, we headed to the Flint Hills International Children's Festival.  They had all kinds of art projects, dancing, painting...  We didn't really venture into the art projects, but LOVED the other things we could see and do!  We also got our pictures taken by the event photographer - so watch for us in next year's advertising!

We didn't care about the art projects because there were a few things that turned us into art - for free!

First, we tried the hair painting:

Pink & Purple Polka Dots

More Pink & Purple

 They had a playhouse where we could color inside with chalk... and we could even WRITE on the WALLS!

Can you tell my hair is blue?

 We also tried the face painting...

Butterflies...

Butterflies..

Mr. Golden Sun

 At the end, we saw people dancing on the side of the Lawson building using ropes.  That was VERY cool!  Then, we headed to Mills Fleet Farm (Papa's store) to look for Cy's Frontline and a swing for Brooke.  We didn't find the swing...  As Mommy's patience was hitting a road block, we attempted one more stop at Kohl's.  We did get the graduation gifts we went in search of - but we also broke a water bottle all over the floor at the check out lane!

Once we made it home, we needed to cool off!  It was time for the sprinkler! 

You can really see our hair color - before we got it wet (and really, it washed right out -- AMAZING!).

We really needed sprinkler time - the girls were so happy - it was hard to not snap a ton of pictures:

Now... what's going to be the "distraction" next weekend??  Suggestions anyone?