Making Lemon-Aid from Lemons

Has anyone noticed that we have had a lot of rain lately?  Tee hee!  Okay, bad joke! 

Rain does not usually bother me.  In fact, I like the rain because it forces me to slow down and say, "hey, let's watch a movie!",  rather than "hey, let's play volleyball, let's go on a hike, or even let's knock down some knotweed!".  But I was quite disappointed when I pushed open the church doors this afternoon and saw that we were still engulfed in mist and fog.  I really thought it was going to burn off by lunchtime.  This is getting ridiculous! 

As I was making lunch, my brain started sifting through our regular rainy day activities.  A board game . . . nah!  A movie . . .  nah!  Reading books in my bed . . . nah!  After a month of rain, we have grown pretty tired of this list so I knew that not one of these activities was going to cut it today.  I needed to be creative!  I needed to be enthusiastic, and I needed to do it quickly.  But alas, the ideas did not come.  Just as I was about to concede defeat and submit to an afternoon filled with wrestling, teasing, and whining (the usual symptoms of cabin fever), I heard Elliot holler up from the basement:

"Mom!  Do you want to play miniature golf?" 

What?!  Feeling intrigued by the ingenuity of this idea and curious as to what exactly Elliot meant, I quickly ran downstairs.

Turns out that as I was mourning the lack of sunshine and racking my soggy brain for ideas, my munchkins were busy transforming our basement into a mini-putt park:



Station 1: Par 4



Station 2: Par 3





Station 3: Par 5
It looks simple but you have to work your way through the movies and then put the ball into the box at the end which is slightly obscured from the surrounding movies.

Who knew that my boys could work together and use their evil genius to create a game that did not involve death and destruction?  Well, that is until Avery shot his ball under the couch and Elliot counted every swing he took to get out against him.  Yikes!  Note to self, what did you expect when two highly competitive brothers are armed with golf clubs?

The final scores! 

In spite of Avery's brief temper tantrum, we had a blast!  In fact, we were having so much fun that even Zoe, who is too cool for all things brother-made, was enticed to try the course out herself:

Note that mama was not allowed to take a picture of her head due to a "bad hair day". 
You gotta love 13 year old girls! 

I am so proud of my boys for being creative today and for refusing to allow the rain to bring them down.  They made the best of a wet, soggy afternoon and reminded their family that you can always make lemon-aid when the world gives you lemons!

Too cheesy?

P.S. I have a firm belief in the power of prayer. Gramma Skov (Mama Skov to me and my sibs) is going through a really tough time right now and could use your prayers.  Please send notes of love and encouragement to me via facebook, email, or comments at the end of this blog, and I will send them her way. Thanks!