I picked up Maddison and Mackenzee very early yesterday morning. The sun was shining and the morning looked deceivingly warm. It definitely wasn't, but in the toasty car, the girls were getting carried away. They came up with a plan to go to the park and have a picnic! After a lengthy conversation between the two of them on where we would go, what they would play on and what we would eat, I interrupted to let them know that we may not be able to go today.
They are so easy going! They continued on with their plans "just in case we were on that side of town". When we got home, Brent and the girls played chase and be scary games for a while. Then we all played a Nickelodeon Interactive DVD Bingo game they brought over. I am amazed at these girls. They knew exactly what they were doing and they showed us how to play!
At 10:30 a.m. (remember, I went to get them very early -- at 10:30, I was almost ready for a nap) I mentioned that today was supposed to be the last nice day of the year. The rain and snow was forecasted to start in the middle of the night Saturday. So we bundled up (it was still pretty chilly at 10:30) and all went outside. Maddison and Mackenzee played and played and played! They don't know the word "bored" because they do so well at entertaining themselves.
They got out the sidwalk chalk and decorated our driveway and Grandma Great's driveway. At one point, I came around the front of the house and saw Maddison walking around in circles in the driveway holding the sponge from the chalk box to her hand and whispering to herself. I asked her what she was doing and she showed me her hand. It's hard to see in the picutre, but she got carried away coloring on the cement and rubbed all of her fingers really hard on the cement.....taking a few chunks of skin off in the process. She didn't cry and whine. She wasn't even going to come tell me. I took her in, cleaned her hand, bandaged the bad spots (Mackenzee needed the same amount of bandages too for some "ouchies" that none of us could see, but she could feel!) and put a pair of pink gloves on her. They were my gloves and a tad too large for her teeny, tiny hands, but she kept them on the entire time.
They entertained themselves with the pogo stick, Razor scooter, a stroller and the sleds. Mackenzee pulled Maddison, then Maddison pulled Mackenzee. In this picture they have blue rubber gloves on that were humongous on them. I used some inside of my garden gloves and they wanted some too. They didn't keep those on very long!
They had so much fun just being outside.
When Brent was cleaning up the leaves in the back yard, the girls discovered their sandbox down by the woods. The sand was amazingly clean and bug free! Once they opened the sandbox, that was it. They played in that for almost two hours!
Brent used my Mom's lawnmower with the bag on it instead of raking. Man, our yard looks good now! I cut down all the spent summer foliage and raked out the flower beds. Brent was able to put down fertilizer as well....knowing it's suppose to rain soon.
After a yummy lunch I made with Thanksgiving leftovers, Sara came to pick up the girls. I then climed up in the attic and brought down our outdoor lights. I thought I'd better get them done NOW instead of doing it in the cold or wet or windy weather. Around 4:30, Brent had finished the yard, had just finished blowing off our driveway (he pulled our cars out in the cul-de-sac at the end of our driveway, just like he ALWAYS does). The lawnmower was still sitting out in the driveway. There was no mistake, if you happened to pull into our cul-de-sac, you would know we were right in the middle of yard work. I was putting up Christmas lights on the weeping cherry tree. Brent was in the house for a minute. I see a Fort Wayne Police cruiser come into the cul-de-sac. He circled a total of three times before stopping next to my car. My heart, by then, was just pounding. Laurel had left a couple hours before. I couldn't imagine why he was at OUR house unless something had happened with Laurel. WELL.....................I raised my sunglasses to get a good look, expecting him to get out and come up to talk to me. Instead, all of a sudden, I hear him on his LOUDSPEAKER ... in our quiet little cul-de-sac. He is screaming at me to move our cars our of the street and into our driveway). Then he pulled away as I stood there for a few seconds with my mouth hanging open. I didn't comprehend right away. Then I stormed in to see if Brent had witnessed that. He missed it, he was upstairs. Absolutely unbelievable. First of all, there were other houses on our street with vehicles parked out in the road. I did not hear him stop and scream at them on his loudspeaker. Our vehicles were in front of our driveway, not blocking or obstructing anything. And, truly, they were there only temporarily. Just by looking at what was going on in our yard and drive, a normal person would have come to that conclusion almost instantaneously.
I tried to call the non-emergency number for the Fort Wayne Police....they were closed. You can bet, though, that I will be calling first thing Monday morning. I, unfortunately, did not get a car number or anything. I was so stunned, I didn't even think. But you can bet, someone is going to get an earful from me!
Doesn't this look beautiful? And, look, no leaves under the snow!! Maybe, if the snow is just right, we can build a snowman with Maddison and Mackenzee this afternoon when they come over.
It looks so beautiful out in the woods. I could see the squirrels scurrying out there.
This is the same view I took yesterday with Brent mowing and the girls playing in the sandbox with the sun shining brightly. 
Today might just be the first time we shovel this season. It's really coming down fast.
Looks like Christmas, huh?
