• Oct. 13, 2007
Balloon Chasers
Today was one of those days where almost no school had happened. I had our day planned out so nicely, but due to some unplanned "errands" that I ended up having to run, the only lesson that we accomplished was Superman's Reading Made Easy. (He is sailing right through and doing a fabulous job! He also gets a canary eating grin on his face nearly everytime he reads the new three-sentence paragraph at the end of each lesson. I am so proud of him.)
Anyway, after running errands, dealing with a small "accident" that the tree-cutting company had in our backyard (don't worry, the only injury was to our playset), getting the girls down for a very quick afternoon nap, and then getting everyone ready to go to football practice, I was ready to hand the baton to someone else for the rest of the day. (Hubby wouldn't be home until much later this evening.) We made it through a chilly football practice with me chasing Sweet Pea for a lot of it. She had these sudden urges today to jump up and make for the parking lot, and she is fast! Even before we got to practice, I knew that even an easy dinner wasn't going to happen tonight, so I made the kids' day by announcing we would be going to one of their favorite restaurants to get carry out for dinner.
So on the way home from practice I called my hubby to trouble-shoot the "incident" that occurred with the playset. (I know, I should not be on the cell phone while driving, but I had to get his input on this, and the van is the most quiet place to carry on a phone conversation with him.) While conferring with hubby, I missed my turn to the restaurant and had to proceed through a very congested, major intersection to turn around. Just as I was about to make my turn, my 4 year old (Giggly Girl) yells "Mommy, Mommy, look, look!" I look to my left and see a very large, very colorful hot-air balloon, and it was very close to the ground and not far away. It was drifting just above the rooftops of a nearby subdivision, and I thought I could figure out the whereabouts of the entrance to the sub. So I said, "Let's go chase it!" (Yes, we were all tired and very hungry, and it was getting close to bedtime, but I just wanted to do it!) Of course, the kids were ecstatic and began telling me to turn here, go this way, etc. We easily found our way into the subdivision, took a left turn, and bam - we came right under the balloon as it crossed over just above us. It was so low that we could clearly see the faces of the passengers. So we continued chasing it - out of the sub., across a fairly major road - and by this time we realized it was going to land. So we pulled into a parking lot right next to the field where it was landing, and we got to watch it land, get deflated and wrapped up.
Now this may not sound like a huge deal, but for me and my kids it was. They've only seen a few hot air balloons, and those were from a distance and up pretty high. This one was so gorgeous in color and of course, it was just enormous in size because we were right there at it. We were enthralled. (And of course, ever the teacher at heart, I was encouraged to find out that Superman remembered the name of the gentlemen who invented the hot air balloon. We just finished The Glorious Flight a couple of weeks ago and learned about the Montgolfier Brothers.) Just to top it all off, when I googled hot air balloon to get a pic. for this post, I found the one pictured above. It is almost identical to "our balloon".
Thank you Lord for caring so much about us that on this somewhat trying day You saw fit to send us a brightly wrapped present, one that would thrill the hearts of my children and encourage the heart of this frazzled Mommy.
Comments
• Oct. 14, 2007
I am so jealous!
Posted by MichelleL
That must have been SO fun!
