It's all fun until...

Dade has been wanting to play on a slip 'n' slide for quite some time now. If you can remember back to around Christmas, he used our tarp for just that purpose.

Well, about a week or two ago, Joel and I were in the market and saw some heavy-duty plastic. Upon discovering that it was a bit less than $1 for a meter, we promptly bought 10 meters to surprise Dade. (Inwardly, I was applauding myself for the great purchase, much cheaper and longer than a tarp! However, I knew our Ugandan neighbors would see it as a waste if they understood the reason we bought the plastic...so I reminded myself that the woman from whom we bought it doesn't give a hoot why we wanted it and is very thankful she made money.)

This picture is a bit awkward, and I apologize for the need to cock your head a bit to take it in correctly. Somehow, at the end of the day, it was the only picture that included the entire piece of plastic.
As soon as we arrived home, we set it up for the kids and they went to town! It does help to have someone keep it wet so Joel sat there for a good while being the honorary sprayer...he's such a good daddy!You can only imagine how badly Dara and Dade wanted someone to join them in their fun. They are very hard to resist, but I gave it a moment of thought, than confessed that I'd probably hurt myself if I tried. So, our friend Lara came over to play. Lara is a member of our team who is teaching nursing in the university here. She admitted that it was fun, but she did feel the bumps as she slid down.

Despite her admission, Joel was talked into joining the kids a few days later. They had a blast! They all ended up covered in grass and mud (you can only imagine that when sliding down a wet piece of plastic, there will be a nice puddle of mud at the end - there definitely was and Joel met the challenge face on!) Now we all know that Joel is prone to doing things that might cause injury to himself (like swinging from trees like a monkey, etc) and I did ask him to please be mindful of this but I have pictures like this to show that my wonderful husband is sometimes a silly boy at heart.

Thankfully, God protects little boys and big ones!