Our neighbors up the street, around the corner and across the street love Inflatable Yard Decor. They have something for almost every holiday. Halloween is Scooby Doo dressed in a purple mask and cape. Thanksgiving is a Turkey. Christmas brings two or three "ornaments", one of them being a 6' Grinch. They plug them in around dinner time, and unplug them when they go to bed. Our inflatable friends sit on their rooftop sleepily deflated during the day. It's not something I would ever choose to don my own house, but you know what? My kids LOVE them. They talk about them incessantly.
"Is Scooby awake?"
"Can we go see Scooby?"
"What's Scooby looking at?"
The kids will often hop on their bikes and we'll take a little ride up the street and around the corner and across the street to visit Scooby. Yes, he's deflated when we go, but the kids just stand there and adore him. On Halloween night, his was the only house (besides Boo's primary teacher) that they really wanted to go visit.
A few weeks ago, we were going to run some errands. I was scurrying around the house gathering things we would need: diapers, drinks, purse, shoes, jackets, etc. The kids went outside and were riding their bikes around the driveway. I loaded everything in the car and realized all too quickly that it was too quiet. I looked for their bikes and they were gone. I walked down the driveway and looked left and right and couldn't see any sign of my four and two-year-old. A moment of panic set in when I called their names and no one answered - flashes of accidents and abductions and DCFS visits shot through my mind. Then I started running. I knew where they were. They went on a pilgrimage to see Scooby. He has some sort of powerful pull over those kids!
I rounded the corner and saw their concerned and relieved faces looking at me. "We were just going to see Scooby," Boo said. Fortunately, the house on the corner has two dogs who bark at passers by. When I'm with them, I will talk to them and they quiet down, but since I wasn't there to be the dog whisperer, the dogs were barking at the kids like crazy, and it had them both a little scared. I'm actually really grateful that they were barking, because they held them at bay - keeping them from crossing the street to Scooby's house!
After heaving a sigh of relief and yet another mother prayer of gratitude, I called for them to circle their bikes and come have a chat with mom. I calmly went through the whole speech about not leaving the driveway w/o mom, and that it's dangerous, and they could get hit by a car or lost.
This past week the inflatable has been switched to the Turkey. Every day they ask to go visit him and inquire after his health.
Here he is in all his inflatable glory
"Is the Turkey awake?"
"Can we go see the turkey?"
"What's the turkey looking at?"
"Will the dogs be angry at us again?"
*These photos were taken this past week when the turkey went up.
6 comments:
I remember these from when we were there last year. It feels like that was forever ago. I miss you.
Your stories are always fun to read. Never a dull moment at your place! (I would rather know where to find the kids at the neighbors...than sport the blown-up look at my own house)
Oh I remember those moments of panic. You will have to slip those neighbor dogs some table scraps as payment for their vigilance!
My kids love the inflatables too. Our next door neighbors had one of those huge blow up globes with a scary person and leaves that blew around inside. Ethan insisted on going to see it each time we walked Emma to school. Each time he would say, "Me want one of those, our house."
That's too funny. Whenever I read your stories, I sometimes wonder if when Steve and I have children if they will be as funny and interesting as yours. I really miss the kids... I can hardly wait for Christmas to come.
Cara, yours will be even cuter, I'm sure of it!
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