I explained, in my post Shhh! how my children were shaped by pranking in their teen years.

The training is paying off nicely.

One night, several weeks ago, my eldest daughter, her best friend, who might as well be a daughter, and I sat around talking about what we might do to entertain ourselves. Trust me, this is harder than you might think. Our house has been in the process of being remodeled for 14 years. We have woods and a huge gully right out our back door. My kids have come up with some very creative entertainment. Tree tents...don't ask if you have a fear of heights. Rafter tag. Again, you probably don't want to go there. Roof hop.

Boredom can be a very dangerous thing in my family.

I'm not sure who birthed the idea, but it may have been a mob mentality thing. Suddenly, our friends (see Shhh!) came up, then came the reminiscing about pink flamingos and the fun of stealth, and the horror of getting caught, and the thrill of victory. A hasty plan was launched.

The multi-faceted problem? No flamingos. Hmmm. What kind of flamingo carrying store would be open at 10:30 on Saturday night, and could any of us afford the 10 flamingos to really make it worth our time? And aren't flamingos kind of yesterday?

But what else could was there? What to do?

And then one of us spied the "needs-to-get-tossed" card table and our minds began churning out ideas. Soon, we had a poker game complete with cards, a pizza box, plates, napkins, pop cans and chip bags spread out over the top of the table, covered in crumbs and a lonely pizza crust. We covered it in plastic to preserve our art. By the time we got it done and called it a masterpiece it was 11:30. A perfect time to visit our friend's yard and leave them a little gift.

Let the games begin.

Hee,hee,hee.