The Giant Ball

A while back, we were at Mom's house. She had some toy catalouges out and asked the boys to look through them to see if they saw anything they might want for Christmas. Sam immediately zeroed in on a giant inflatable ball that you can actually GET INSIDE OF and roll around in! Or as Benny put it, "It's like the ball we have for our hamster, only bigger, and you put people inside of it."

Sam said he wanted the ball for Christmas, and he said, "I don't care if I don't get anything else except the ball. That would be fine. If that's the only present I get, that's okay, because I really want it!"

Being the wonderful grandparents they are, Mom and Dad bought The Big Ball and suprised everyone with it at Thanksgiving. Cole, Carter, Sam and Benny were thrilled.

Cole went to work getting the ball inflated.

Grandad helped them load it up in his wagon and off they all went to the park.

Here's a shot for scale purposes. See the scope of what we're talking about? Is it any wonder they were thrilled?

(All these pictures were taken by Karen, btw.)

Down the hill they go. And it was not enough to put one child in the ball at a time, no, no, no. Please. That's for rookies. They had to get inside the ball in pairs. They had to lie down on the ground and have someone inside the ball roll over them. They had to put that ball through the gauntlet.

And it did not take long for the ball, sadly, to be punctured beyond salvaging, and succumb to tatters.

Grandad ordered a new one, but it's not here yet. For now we have to live with the memories of the Big Ball and how wonderful it was.

Thank you Gram and Grandad for making the boys soooo happy!