I can't talk now, I've got to go save Gotham City

Sorry for the lack of posting lately. I have a limited amount of "free time" each week to blog or do other important things like cleaning the bathrooms, doing the laundry, ironing, weeding the garden, staring off into space, etc... During the summer months I seem to have even less time to engage in these pursuits than I do during the school year. It makes perfect sense then that I have added one more thing more to my to-do list. I am engaged in the important battle to save Gotham City from evil doers.

Yes, it's true. I have wrestled the Wii remote away from Mr. Crackers & our young son C so that I could play a bit of Lego Batman. The Wii is usually a "weekend only" treat around our house. Mr. Crackers & C will typically spend a little quality time on a weekend afternoon helping Indiana Jones recover lost treasure, or using the force to fight the Empire for control of the galaxy.

I blame my recent addiction on the rain that fell on the the 4th of July. Since all of our cookout plans had been cancelled, we stayed close to home & most of the family decided to take a nap. While the house was quiet, I decided to pick up a remote & try my hand at Batman. I can see now why C is always asking if he can play Wii. It's like crack. Once you try it, you feel the need for more.

Luckily there really isn't much time for me to play the game. Usually, I wait until the kiddos have gone to bed before I start flirting with the caped crusader. Lately, Mr. Crackers has started joining me on these evening missions to fight crime. We make quite the dynamic duo.

So, I'm sorry for the lack of updates around the House of Crackers. I promise to get you all caught up again once I rid Gotham of its criminal element (& I catch up on the weeding, laundry, ironing, etc...)

A different kind of 4th of July

Yes, I know I'm about 5 days late with my recap of our 4th of July weekend shenanigans. Cut me a little slack though if you could. My niece and nephew have been visiting this week & we've been trying to squeeze as much playtime with them as possible while we can.

While I've got a little down time this afternoon, I thought I'd fill you in on the 4th of July weekend here at the House of Crackers.

It all started the evening of July 3rd when Mr. Crackers decided to set up the tent so he and the kids could have their first camp out of the year. Unfortunately Mrs. Crackers doesn't have a sleeping bag (shh...I know I could've improvised or even made a dash to Target for one. Honestly though, I camped a lot as a child and I'd much rather sleep in my own bed.)

According to Mr. Crackers, the kids slept well all night long. He knew this since the chair covers he used as bedding didn't quite provide the amount of padding he was expecting. He most of the night awake trying to find a comfortable position to sleep in so he could therefore verify our children's ability to sleep peacefully in seemingly any environment.

I, like the children, also slept well that night. Of course that's probably because I was in our air conditioned home sleeping in my own bed. Thanks for taking one for the team Mr. Crackers!




In the morning, we headed to a neighboring town for their 4th of July parade. For seemingly no reason (except for my own ignorance) we parked about 1 mile from the parade site (seriously, who knew they'd be so many convenient places to park right next to the parade!). We'll just go ahead and say that the long walk to the parade provided us with a nice bit of exercise, especially since we (and by we I mean Mr. Crackers) had to lug our 4 camp chairs up hill and then fight through the throngs of people to try and get to a spot where the kids had a fighting chance of seeing the parade go by...
We do love a parade. Usually the marching bands are our favorite part. This parade was even more special because our good friend Elizabeth was marching in it. In fact I was so excited to see her, I completely forgot to get her picture.

But nothing, not even Elizabeth (sorry Elizabeth), could match the sheer joy my hooligans felt at unexpected sight of Stormtroopers...

and Darth Vader!

I thought C and K were going to come out of their skin with excitement. I have no idea who these people were or why they were in the parade commemorating the birth of our country. I can only thank them & tell them that they improved on our parade experience in a way not even seeing a good friend could match.

Once the parade ended, we headed back to the house to dismantle the tent before the afternoon rains came and dampened the rest of our original plans for the holiday.


We had several invitations to outdoor cookouts from neighbors, but once the rain hit & the kids and Mr. Crackers went down for some well deserved afternoon naps, we changed our plans a bit.

That night instead of grilled burgers and hot dogs, we went out for Indian food at one of our favorite restaurants. After a delicious meal of tandoori chicken & tikka saag, we decided to bypass sitting in the relentless drizzle waiting for fireworks and instead headed home for something even more exciting.... movie night featuring Star Wars (episode 4).

Happy Belated 4th of July. May the force be the with you.

Life is always more violent on the other side of the fence

When we moved into our house 5 years ago, we immediately installed a fence around our backyard. It's not a privacy fence, just the typical wooden picket fence that you'd find in lot of homes around suburbia. When we came to Ohio we had two dogs and one 18 month old child, so containment of these critters was our main priority.

Thankfully, the fence is open enough to afford a clear view of our neighbor's back yard. This is ideal since right next door to us you will find a home filled with 5 boys (& of course their somewhat harried but always very friendly single mother). Over the past 5 years, my kids have spent a lot of time staring longingly through that fence to see what the "big boys" were doing.






The boys next door range in age from 11 years old all the way up to 17. If any of them are outside, my two hooligans have their eyes peeled toward the fence to see what is going on. As you would expect with so many boys, most of the outdoor activities include sword fights, spear throwing, tackle football, or gun play (pellet guns thankfully, not real ones.) Lately though, the boys seem to have a new favorite pastime and it's one that my hooligans really enjoy if their cheering & clapping are any indication.



Apparently the boys have taken a shine to professional wrestling & like to reenact their favorite moves on the family's trampoline. At first most of their "cage matches" simply featured some combination of the brothers jumping on each other within the confines of the trampoline enclosure. Lately though I've noticed that additional props have been added to the show.

Much to the delight of my two hooligans, today's performance included a metal trash can and 2 large plastic batons.

I kept hearing my two crazy children cheering "Hit him again!" and "Push him into the wall" alongside the clang of the metal trash can as each brother took turns using it as a bludgeoning device.

Sometimes I wonder why I bother trying to monitor the amount of violence they watch on TV.

Umm... is it just me or does it look like D is choking his younger brother A in this shot? This is one of the many reasons why Mr. Crackers & I have wisely decided to stop procreating. I'm not sure I can handle more than 2 children. The thought of rearing 5 boys always makes me start to hyperventilate.

I'd probably be out there standing next to the trampoline saying, "Now D, don't choke your brother too hard." or "A, be gentle when you hit your brother on the head with the trash can." or even "Hey, who wants to go inside and color or play quietly with Legos?"

Nope, I'll just stick with my 2 hooligans & try to avoid WWE Smackdown pay-per-view matches in the future with the same fervor that I used to escape Barney during their toddler years.

By the way, I am happy to report that no neighbor boys were injured in the wrestling matches this afternoon. Just like the real WWE, the fights next door are mostly for show.

I'm just glad my kids are the audience instead of the participants. This way, there's a much smaller chance they'll get hit over the head with a trash can.