Thank you.

You’ve kept coming back, almost every day, and then every week, and then maybe once a month to see if I’d written a new post.

Did you lose hope?  You’ll feel right at home then, because this is a post about lost hope.

I found out where they’ve been keeping it.

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Welcome to a little town called  Jumanji (no connection to the Robin Williams movie, it’s just a name that deserves to be reused).

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A place where hope has been taken hostage. The citizens of Jumanji have a death grip on it and don’t plan on letting it loose anytime soon.

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We can blame it on Mayor Luigi.

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You just can’t trust a mayor that appoints poultry as his second in command.

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There’s something foul in Denmark!

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And it seemed like such a happy place.

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Dogs chewing on bones, sheep in peaceful slumber, townsfolk willing to give you the hair off their head…

But above it all lurks a silent evil…

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The mayor’s henchman.

There’s no need for security cameras in Jumanji…

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The ever watchful eye of Buzz Lightyear sees all.

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Could this be where hope is being kept prisoner? In the big blue bowl in the sky?

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We may never know, but next time you watch a cheesy movie where the characters gaze skyward as the camera fades out,

and they announce that hope is always on the horizon,

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you, dear friends, will be able to say:

Maybe not, maybe hope is in a big blue bowl over Jumanji.

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To my faithful followers, it’s good to be back. I’ve missed you. Turns out that fighting Lyme Disease took all the creative part out of me and I was left with the part that does laundry and dishes. And then that even got up and left–not a good place to be.  But I’m back now and you’ll be able to gauge how I”m doing.  If you see a lot of me you can assume my laundry and dishes are getting done. If you don’t hear from me for awhile, send in the Merry Maids!

It was 2010, the last time we made the long trip to the indoor skateboard park. Or, parc, as they say it here.

But Tristan’s birthday warranted a return trip.

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They allowed roller blades. I had my doubts watching him skate off…

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Still doubting…

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Not convinced.

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Better.

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This is what I was waiting to see. Full command of fun.

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It took Sawyer awhile to gain full command of fun, too.

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But it came.

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This was the most fun thing– a new friend. A boy Sawyer’s age and a new Montreal resident. Yay!

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The only thing left to do was eat cake. I told Tristan to blow out the candles quickly before they realized we had an open flame in a public place. Although, I’m not sure they would have cared. Skateboard parks and reckless behavior just seem to go hand in hand.

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At any moment I expected two large marshmallow guys to pull out their Ike and Mike weapons and start fighting.

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But they survived the afternoon unscathed. Nothing happened that a little Gatorade couldn’t cure.

A piece of advice: if you plan to chat with the other moms during the party it will be TOO LOUD to have any intelligible conversation. You’ll have to move across the street to the ice cream shop and chat over frozen yogurt with your choice of topping.

Not a bad way to spend an afternoon.

“Mom, I’ve got a great idea!  What if today is a special day and we call it Happy Brother’s Day and I make a special treat for Tristan?”

This surprised even me.  They were just fighting like dueling banjos and now this?

“That is a great idea, Sawyer.”

“Can I make him this Jello?  With marshmallows?”

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Jello with marshmallows wasn’t enough. Happy Brother’s Day required place cards and crystal chip and dip bowls as eating receptacles.

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Provision was made for their stuffed animals with vehicles to be present.

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I never knew his name was Bubles!

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Tristan stayed downstairs until the table was ready so he would be surprised. The look on his face says he really wants to eat the Jello, but he’s afraid Sawyer’s idea is a bit little-kiddish.

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Which is odd, considering Tristan is the one that picked out that toddler bus for Bubles. Can’t that same bus riding monster come to a Happy Brother’s Day party?

You bet your one eyeball it can!

And I’ll do you one better. Tristan will make a treat for Sawyer in return.

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His surprise consisted of: melted chocolate chips, applesauce, peanut butter and marshmallows.

The Monster Mash.

Sawyer, I’d go slowly if I were you.

It all started with the box of doom.

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Or “Box of Wood” depending on your orientation.

My recent knee surgery had kept me from being able to do stairs so all I knew is that the boys were happily occupied in the basement. I didn’t know what with.

The Box of Doom was enough to make me hobble down to get a gander…

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Welcome to the delightful town of Dinglyberg.

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It has a mayor who rules with an iron fist. If you do something really bad once, or sort of bad and are told not to, but then do it again, you’ll go into the Box of Doom.

I wonder how this would improve the crime rate in the US?

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The streets are pretty quiet in Dinglyberg, but that might be because it’s after midnight. And everybody knows what happens if you are found out of your house after midnight…

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Scarecrow will get you.  You get five chances, and then you’re dead.

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The citizens mostly live a leisurely life, unless it’s New Year’s Eve, in which case everybody gathers to watch…

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The balls drop.

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This is the town bank, but that’s not a toilet on the roof. It’s the manager.

I’m sure this isn’t a commentary on bank managers.

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It makes perfect sense to me. The bank manager is a talking role and this was the only guy that could open and close his mouth.

You may have thought that Scarecrow was the scariest character in Dinglyberg, but wait until you meet this guy…

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Galactis. It’s rumored that he eats other toys. He lives in the cave under the desk, but nobody has ever seen him.

You should feel privileged.

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This former mayor was run out of town by the Babies.

Trust me, you don’t want to mess with The Babies…

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Pictured left to right: Suzy, Isabelle, Sally, and Baby Huffington.

The last people you want to meet in a dark alley.

I was saving these dolls and the doll house for my sweet little baby girl grandkids. I can see it now,

“Grandma, do you have any dollies to play with?”

Sigh.

“Sure sweeties, just go look in the Box of Doom.”