Dan Wardell must not have a ten-year-old daughter.

I've never seen Laura's face so red.

(How lucky was I to have my video setting all ready to go?)

Don't bug me, man, while I'm making this...

...and eating these...

...I'll see ya round about lunchtime. Now shoo!

(And by "man" I mean "you kids".)

Wasserbahn Mini Golf (A Review)

1 1/2 Stars out of 5.

I would have given it 2 Stars, but the weather was bad, and surely Wasserbahn had a hand in it. Mid-sixty degree temps, overcast, and windy. Is it July or October? And since "October" reminds me of all things German, just like "Wasserbahn", the only natural conclusion I can draw is that the two are somehow linked. Thus 1 1/2 stars.





A tip for you. If you have a two year old, it's worth the extra three dollars to rent her a putter too, or else she'll act like this:
And eventually you'll find her eating dirt in the street.
For all those people who are wondering what it looks like to drive through the Iowa countryside:
A random tractor parade:


Cows.
Corn.
Aw...quaint. A small-town graveyard.
No kidding. Later on during the drive, more tractors.

Maquoketa

Bonus

I've been conducting an experiment the last year to see how much time I can save by eliminating showering and exercise from my daily regime. What I've found? I can save roughly one hour a day. Multiplied by 365 and that's a whole lot of free time on my hands!*

Another bonus: We went to the rec center and my smell must have cleared out the place. We had the entire pool to ourselves!









*I'm kinda joking. Um, not about the exercise part, though.

My new favorite thing to do.

I'm not an artist and never have been. I never did well in art class when I was in school. I always thought it was cruel to force unartistic kids to take art and risk botching their GPA. (I guess artistic kids could have the same feelings about English class.) But on a whim a couple of weeks ago, I went out and bought some acrylic paints and canvases and--waddyaknow--I've had a blast experimenting.

Noelle loves Cinderella, so I tried to paint a few scenes for her this week. Let me tell ya, painting faces and hands, it's harder than it looks. Basically I just kept drawing and erasing and drawing and erasing until the sketches resembled humans more than aliens...but I'm so proud of the lips. I can't tell you how badly I was shaking while I painted the lips.

Fun, huh? Anyone want to come over sometime and paint with me?

Happy 4th of July!

Fletcher Family Tradition dictates that bright and early on the 4th, we head out of doors and make our way to IHOP. (Below is a picture of my gluten-free, delicious, bacony breakfast.)

Noelle, being her usual awesome self.

Isaac, decorating his pancake.

Laura and Lincoln, being very grown up and polite and boring.

A rainy day parade.

Isaac with wet socks.

The rain finally cleared and the girls enjoyed the outdoors at a barbeque.

Noelle rode her first horse.

(Shoot. Why do all my kids love animals so much? I'm going to end up living on a freaking farm someday. ) *

The boys stayed indoors and enjoyed some virtual fun.

Luckily the fireworks lured them back outside. Yay for glowsticks and popcorn and friends underneath a lit-up sky!

Happy Independence Day, everyone!

*I have nothing personally against farms. I hope it didn't come across that way. I'm just not an animal person. Not even a little bit.