it is fun to have fun but you have to know how

[one of my favorite Dr. Seuss quotes]

We started the week with days of torrential rain.  The river by our house is usually 8 to 10 ft below the banks.  Monday night it was only 18 inches from overflowing.  It was huge and wide and powerful and rushing crazy scary fast.

The rain finally slacked off and the past two days have been mostly cloudy, sometimes misty.  Still a long ways from dry and sunny, but much better than early in the week. 

Unfortunately all the rain caused flooding.  The flooding caused a mud slide.  The mud slide damaged part of the water plant.

So, here we are... ironically without water.  Ha!  The water outage hasn't been too painful as they have been turning it back on sporadically throughout the day.  I realized the water was running early this morning and managed to wash one load of clothes.  It ran again briefly at lunch.  After dinner we bathed all the kids - the bath water was brown and yucky looking, but at least it was wet.  After three bath-less days, Matt and I agreed that brown water bathing would be an improvement over their current condition and all five had a brisk cold cleaning.

After two straight days stuck inside while torrential rains flooded the grounds I was praising the Lord our new apartment is significantly larger than our current place!  Ohmy there is no better way to feel the space crunch that sticking indoors all day every day!

But these sweet kiddos are so resilient, though we sorely missed the outdoor play, they had so much fun! 

So here's our photo spread of "it is fun to have fun but you have to know how".  Most of the pics are from today but maybe two are from earlier in the week.

Lydia couldn't "find her water bottle" so she got creative.  Filled a bowl with water, scooped it into a medicine cup and took small sips.  She did this for a few minutes, then scrambled back to find the others, thirst abated. 
p.s. She reached past perfectly usable water cups to grab this bowl.  Used a stool to get the medicine cup.
p.p.s.  Her water bottle was in plain sight on the bedroom floor. 

It's all about knowing how to have fun.

Luke laughing at his reflection in the oven door.
 

While taking the pic of Luke laughing I received an invite to a "show".  The girls did several dances (basically flitting and arm waving and humming some self-composed little tunes).  They even had lyrics to some of their hummed music.  And I quote, "I am a butterfly, flying now; I am her friend and she is my pal." 

Isaac loves a good fort/hut/castle  - this was his backdrop to the girls' show - Isaac on guard duty, you know: protecting the dancers, keeping out the riffraff (ahem, that would be Luke)

He keeps a bit of weaponry stored under that big blanket, so you best watch out, and stay on his good side. 

Later Lydia changed into her ballerina clothes and opened a fruit stand.  This required a lot of prep work (mostly making money for the cash register and creating her signage).

["FRUIT" spelled with an 'o' which she later tried to erase-edit into a 'u i'.] 

Isaac (always right in the thick of all the play-creating) was in charge of the fruit supply chain.  This involved an incredible amount of paper cutting, most of which ended up on the kitchen floor.

And there's nothing like some crafting at the kitchen table to pique Luke's interest.  He won't be floor level for long :)

John Paul is never far from the center of activity.  He's learning to make his own crayon creations and loves stickers. 

And he's solidly left-handed.  Just like his Grandmama!

Yes, it is definitely fun to have fun, but you have to know how. 

{stay tuned for a sequel post, title quoted from the same Seuss book: "And this mess is so big and so deep and so tall.  We cannot pick it up.  There is no way at all."  Having fun, creating fun..... it gets messy.  Messy.  Messy.  Big and Deep and Tall messy.}