What a "Wet Wednesday!"

To celebrate "Wet Wednesday," we planned to go with friends to the Whitney Ranch pool, but then the rains came. I woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of the rain on our back patio cover and it didn't stop all day.

My kids monitored the water level in our pool and played in the rain in our back yard. I used the time to finish cleaning and prepping the school room. Here's the fruit of that labor:

I could have cleaned all day, I'm weird that way, but the kids had other ideas so we headed out after lunch to the library and then to Lowe's to go cactus shopping. Last week the kids made "poured paint" pots and we needed something to plant in them. As we drove around town, the rain kept tumbling down.

The library was flat-out depressing. A sign on the door told of budget cut-backs and resulting weekly closures beginning at our branch in October. Once inside, towels and buckets were placed all around the floor to catch water from numerous ceiling leaks. The children's section was darkened because of the number of leaks and several areas were roped off and the books removed from the shelves to prevent water damage. Despite the darkness and the dampness, everyone went about their usual business but it was all a little bizarre.

From the library we made our way to Michael's for a few last-minute school supplies and then to Lowe's where we picked out miniature cactus plants for seven kids. It's slightly harrowing to carry that many cacti around and get them to the register and then out to the car, but we did it.

Back at the ranch, we spent some time transplanting the cacti and getting soaked outside as the rain continued to pour.

We never got to swim, but it was still a thoroughly wet Wednesday. The rain finally ceased around dinner time and we ended the day in the cul de sac with a few other families in total shock and delight that the temperature was in the high 60s - a full thirty-plus degrees cooler than usual for this time of the year.

One of my favorite scenes from the day - Joe offered to read to John and Dominic when we got home from cactus-planting. Their heads were still wet - it was a day soaked in fun.