McClendon, Party of Five: Cruisin' for a Bruisin'

Cruisin' for a bruisin', achin' for a breakin'. Call it what you want, but that's the way it's been around here for the last couple of days. Today marks the 8th day since Christmas has come and gone. That's 8 days of coming up with way to entertain ourselves. J's been on vacation from work through today which means that entertainment has been anything but boring, safe, and sensible. Last night he got the idea that it would be fun to play hide-n-seek outside in the trees and tall bushes at the park with flashlights. It really was fun, and the kids had a ball. But Towns was complaining that her face was burning. We all kept telling her to toughen up and that she was fine. And then we all felt extremely bad when we were back in the car and in the light. She was just the perfect height to get a face full of branches and limbs when she ran through the bushes and trees. Bless her little heart, her face was scratched up pretty bad. You can sort of tell in this picture from last night...

But today, it's even worse and she looks like she's been in a war zone. Her little arms are even scratched up. I'm thinking the next round of hide-n-seek should include some some face protection! And you better believe she hasn't let us forget just how bad her face burns from her battle wounds. She's been known to milk it a time or two!

The pink electric scooter Santa brought has logged a few hours of good street racing. I don't think we realized just how fast that thing would go. J's been letting Towns ride it with only half the battery power so she wouldn't kill herself. She's taken a few hits going full speed which hasn't been pretty. This morning he called us all outside for a family race. It seems that the one on the battery operated scooter vs. the manually operated scooter has the unfair advantage, unless you're as competitive as the crazy man pictured below...

Buggy wasn't happy her daddy left her and tried to catch up on foot!

Bebs makes me laugh...

This one could have ended one of two ways given how fast they were going...

Thankfully, Cate stayed in one piece!

Towns was kind enough to give up her scooter and opted to be the girl at the starting line telling us when to go...

Crazy kids...

This one plays it safe most of the time...

She keeps her hand on the brakes and jumps off when those brakes don't work quit fast enough for her. Smart girl!

Cate and I raced her, but we got stuck with the slow scooter. Notice that Towns had time to get back and take her place at the finish line before we ever made it back...