Quack quack to Boston Town.

I barely saw the kids this weekend, as I spent Saturday in Boston on a "duck safari" (more on that in a bit) and today at rehearsal. We left them in the care of Tim's aunt (who successfully raised three children of her own) and Tim's cousin (who is 20 and probably viewed the time as a crash course in why celibacy really isn't such a bad choice). But, I came home today with two bright green plastic necklaces that someone gave out at rehearsal, so the older two forgave my absenteeism.

So Boston. Tim and his friend Dan organized an incredible day out, where teams of two were given rubber ducks and told to run around the city photographing said duck at various landmarks and in various situations. The only real caveat was that you were forbidden to pay admission to any place, and several places required photographs in the science museum, the aquarium, etc.

Who's got two thumbs (and a duck) and talked her way into the planetarium, the Omni theater (but the picture didn't work out) AND the aquarium? AND got her duck to successfully order a green beer at a bar with  line out the door?

This lady!

Quack, quack, yo, I'm in the planetarium.

My partner in crime was my friend from college, Bill, and together we came in a very respectable second place. If you were not the first to text in a picture, you only got half points, and as it turned out, we were following the first place winners around all day (we had no way of knowing) so we did not take home the grand prize (free dinner), but we had an absolute blast. I laughed so hard when I found out that not one, but three teams, had convinced police offices to pose handcuffing the team duck...and that all three teams (mine among them) had managed to find and photograph the exact same officers.

Also, it was St. Patrick's Day, and that means Boston was full of crazy drunk people, and crazy drunk people are absolutely willing to be in crazy fun scavenger hunt photos. Kiss the duck? Sure! Let my duck pretend to bum a cigarette off you? Why not! 

Also, the next time my kids try to talk me into something crazy, I will have to remind myself they come by it honestly enough.

For instance, this morning, as we were pulling into the church parking lot (at 10:15 a.m.), Mary tried this one:

"Mom and Dad, you know what we should do before church? We should get ice cream."

"Mary, no ice cream, we're going to church and it's 10 in the morning. No."

"Okay, we can do it after church, then."

And you know, she almost had me convinced. But that could also be because I'm a sucker for ice cream.

If I let my duck get green beer (see it, at the bottom?) why wouldn't I get ice cream at 10 a.m.? I ask you!

 Then Anna later came out of Sunday School with jelly beans and negotiations went thusly from Miss Anna Beans:

"Wanna eat mine jellybeans now."


"Not now, baby, lunch, then naps, then jelly beans."

"Just one?"

"After lunch and naps."

So we get home and have lunch and we're getting the girls ready for naps and Mary reminds us about the waiting candy.

"After naps," we remind her.

"But you said after lunch, too, and it's after lunch!" (Or something to this tune.)

I'm going to start saving for law school now. Or at least wait for the year I can team up with Mary on the Boston Duck Safari (they're thinking of making it an annual event!) because I have a feeling then we'll be unstoppable.