Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Rain! Rain!

It's raining lightly right now. I can hear the exotic pitter-patter. If it keeps on for a little while longer, it will provide enough water that I can turn off the sprinklers tonight and save $25! It rained yesterday as well, the first rain in our part of the Salt Lake valley since early June. I was so glad to see it that I was partially immune to the irony of it showing up the very moment the Butlerville Days parade started. July 24 is Pioneer Day in Utah - a major state holiday complete with time off. Our 'burb piggybacks on the big holiday with the (much smaller) Butlerville Days festivities. Parade (including a few big floats making an encore appearance after the giant Pioneer Day parade downtown that morning), inflatables, smashed candy, horses, music...the usual good stuff.
Here are the soggy festivities. Simon was working, but if he had been there, he would have said that it's just like the rained-upon carnivals of his youth in England.
Sara has just started Brownies. The Butlerville Days parade was her first scout activity, hence the pristine vest.

Lots of great fun getting wet butts of the sopping inflatables. Added an element of water-slide-ish-ness.

The police helicopter circled for a while, then landed. I told Nate they were coming for him.

This is Nate's wheedling face. I suppose he thinks he looks like Puss in "Shrek". He wanted to stay longer, but we had to go home because Sara was planning to make lasagna for supper, and it needs a while to bake.

Here is Sara making supper. She'll have Cooking Merit Badge in the bag. (Actually, in Brownies, they call them "Try-Its", not merit badges. Girl Scouting has changed a little since I was in it.)She has to stand on a milk crate, but she can do the whole thing: measuring, browning the meat, cleaning up when she's done. I open the tomato sauce can and deal with the hot oven and its scary hot door. I thought I'd put this in to prove that she's really not a goth or a flapper, as per my earlier blog entry about her.

10 comments:

Alice Kildaire said...

ok I'm a total sucker because your son's wheedling face would've worked like a charm on me, although your daughter's lasagna may have twisted my arm more!

BTW, I'm sorry, but "Try-its"? I wonder if my boss will pay me tomorrow if I say I tried to come in, but couldn't seem to wake up? lol...Good thing she has a REAL girlscout for a mom!

Anonymous said...

yeah...ur daughter looks "Normal" here...was beginning to wonder there...

Erin said...

they don't call them merit badges anymore!?!?!? How weird!

Kate said...

Well, I don't know about Juniors and Cadets and Seniors, but the Brownies are calling them "Try-Its". I guess I'll find out how much trying is involved shortly. Too bad they don't give them to grown-ups. That would be a blog entry all on its own.

Maya said...

How'd the lasagne turn out?

Kate said...

Hi, Maya-

Pretty good, although the noodles were a little chewy. We decided that it was worth the money to buy the brand-name noodles - we get better results.

Maria said...

I was a brownie flunkee. I wanted to wear that brown beanie and outfit so badly. I begged my mother to sign me up and then went to like two meetings and decided that I wasn't brownie material and the beanie didn't sit properly on my head, it made me look like I had a big brown dish perched on my head....

So, I stopped going to meetings and never got even one merit badge or..um..a "try it" thingee...

Anonymous said...

I think the Girl Scout/Brownie organization is a great opportunity for girls. We thought about it for awhile for our two daughters, but those delicious ever popular cookie-sales became a deal-breaker in the end. Between their friends & our co-workers kids, we get hit up for upwards of a couple hundred-plus bucks just for that. At least the local girls group isn't like the Boy Scouts in our town...they're down-right predatory. Their big fund raiser is selling popcorn. (popcorn???) According to my sources, they have our town mapped out & divided by neighborhoods. Each house is color-coded for new sales, old sales, houses worth returning to, and those with nasty angry homeowners. Yikes!

Not like the "simpler" times of my youth when I was in 4-H (my hometown of Dalton is that rural) and all I did was show rabbits & woodworking projects at the county fair.

john

Anonymous said...

I'm glad you cleared this up because I did thin that just maybe she was an early Goth. But the Brownie uniform clears things up because I'm pretty sure they don't allow Goths in the Brownies. Even with "Try-Its" Goths are way to sensitive for that kind of thing. :)

Rebecca said...

Well, I'm glad you got some much needed rain, but sorry it happened on the holiday!! Doesn't look like it dampened any spirits though ;). Nate looks adorable, and congrats on the "try-it" (though I do hope merit badges are not out of fashion for the older girls. What is so wrong with meriting something? If it is a PC self esteem thing, I will vomit!