Chilling in the Basement, Playing with Our Balls (Get Your Mind Out of the Gutter!)

Kate and I are at war. Granted it's a friendly and very amusing one, but a war nonetheless. When our nephew Kyler was born, we filled the typical aunt and uncle duty of buying fun, but very noisy or obnoxious (read--annoying to the parents) gifts. Of course, we knew that payback would could come some day, so we tried to make the presents extra good. There was the music kit that had a very loud whistle (or "wild weasle" as Kyler called it) and the coup de gras that was the giant inflatable pig game. (The pig was something like three feet tall.) We didn't think the pig could be topped, but Mandy and Jason easily won the latest round. They bought Jack something called The Bubblegum Playland. It is not noisy, but it is definitely a retaliation of the giant inflatable pig. It is inflatable, and it took me three days to blow it up. I think I counted five different places I had to blow, and it looks like I still may be missing one. We had been talking about converting half my office in the basement into a play area, so this was the deciding factor. And of course Jack loves it.