Our weather has been so weird. 70 degrees one day, cold and rainy the next. The weathermen love to scare me by saying things like, ‘possible flurries next Tuesday’ when I’m driving to preschool and my outside temperature reading says ’68.’ (For the record, I checked the forecast when I got home and the high for Tuesday is 58. Now, that’s not Bermuda shorts weather, but it also doesn’t allow for flurries.) We have to take advantage of any nice weather that happens to mistakenly find itself in Indiana.

The kids are always ready to go outside at a moment’s notice and are annoyed when I can’t be there to supervise chalk drawing or push them endlessly on the swings. Just recently, I’ve allowed them to play in our backyard so long as I can see them from my kitchen window. It isn’t like we live in a high crime area, but it still makes me nervous. The walking path that winds through our neighborhood borders our yard. It isn’t that I think any one of our neighbors has any interest in picking up another child, but I can’t help but dream up wild scenarios.

Yesterday it was 70 degrees, sunny and Alex’s spelling test was over for the week. I had stuffed peppers to make. So, the kids went out to play and swore to follow my strict instructions to the letter. Swing set and backyard only. They lied and were riding their bikes on the path before I so much as put the rice on to boil. It was explained to me that it was a misunderstanding and if I allowed them to ride their bikes they would go no further than “Mile’s house” to “Alec’s house.” Fair enough, still in my line of sight and not on a public roadway.

After their grueling neighborkid to neighborkid bike race, they both popped up in my kitchen window to tell me about their ride, Capri Suns in hand. They do this all the time and it always cracks me up. They will have full conversations with me through a screen, perched on top of our deck box. It’s kind of like they’re at a bar and I’m the bartender, only I provide all the drinks free of charge and serve them dinner.

After dinner we took the world’s slowest bike ride. Brandon and Alex whiz through the neighborhood while I stay back with Meredith giving the back of her tiny pink Schwinn an extra push ever 15 feet. Alex still had energy to burn when we got home, so he and Brandon went to play tennis, while Meredith screamed in the driveway and I thought about what I would do once she was in bed. As her tantrum subsided, I notice a hot air balloon fairly close to our house. Not really all that unusual.

Well, it’s evidently ballooning season again. Two balloons took off from the back of our neighborhood. We have two wide open plains where no one aside from a few deer live. It makes a good launching pad. It also provides me with hours of endless entertainment.

Here’s a fun fact: Extreme Home Makeover just shot an episode in Indy. Estridge is a local, family-owned builder and built the McFarland family’s new home. Obviously, the balloon at the top of this post belongs to them. The episode airs May 17th and is the season finale. Now when you watch it, you’ll be in the know.