What's red, white & 8 feet tall

Lil' Red of course!! Friday I was at Tuesday Morning trying to find some cheap games for the kids (connect four, operation, battle ship - which by the way are harder to find then you would think) and in the clearance section I saw a box that had a bunch of college mascots on it. Out of curiosity I picked it up to see what it was and it was a University of Nebraska blow up yard decoration. My first thought was - mom would love this! My second thought - I could never buy that for her because I always make fun of people that fill their yard with that kind of stuff. Then I thought - but she would love it. She is such a huge Corn Husker fan - she loves everything Nebraska. My next thought - my dad would kill me if I got this for her. So what did I do? I called Monte and got his opinion. We came to the conclusion it was such a great deal. It was 75% off the original price. I figured if mom didn't want it we could return it. So I put it in my cart and proceeded to check out. While checking out I thought - should I really be getting this and feeding her Husker obsession? I thought, I can show it to her and let her decide. If it's too much my feelings wouldn't be hurt. (If mom is reading this she is probably thinking - is there such a thing as too much Nebraska? Dad is probably thinking - there is definitely a thing as too much Nebraska especially when it is 8 feet tall! When we took it out of the box and blew it up we were amazed at how tall 8 feet is!! When I bought it I didn't realize it would blow up to 8 feet. The only way it will end up in their yard is over my dad's dead body but since their great room has such high ceilings maybe mom could put it there on game days. Megan and dad I know I shouldn't encourage her. Even if they don't ever use it it was worth getting a good laugh when we blew it up and saw how big it was. And seeing dad's reaction! Priceless! He wouldn't even touch the box or carry it to the car because he wanted nothing to do with it.

My parents visit was short. They stopped in on their way back from the Navy vs. Duke football game. We had lunch and cake for my dad's birthday. The kids did a great job on his cake. Beckham came up with how we should decorate it all by himself. He thought it should have army men, a jet and American flags since Poppy was in the Navy. He wanted to put his helicopter on it but couldn't find it so we had to settle for the jet. Beckham was funny when we were decorating it he said "mom, Poppy isn't going to take my toys is he? How about he gets the flags and I keep the toys." We had a fun making and decorating the cake for such a special dad and poppy.