Power-less for 2 hours

Who knew that a power outage on one of the hottest days of the year could be so much fun?

Saturday night we were winding down in our usual before bed time routine. The kids were watching a tape on TV and mommy and daddy were cleaning up the kitchen. This night Austin had chosen a Mickey Mouse sing-along tape (a huge marketing ploy for Disney; he's now dying to go see Mickey and Minnie).

He has watched this tape so many times that he knows the order of the songs. Daddy and Mommy hum tunes like "Whistle While You Work" and "It's a Small World" for hours after the tape ends. We don't encourage this one. And, of course, he LOVES it! He was singing and dancing and then, silence.

His original reaction was, "uh-oh". It took lots of explaining to get through to a 3 1/2 year old about a power failure. You could tell the very moment that he got it. The look on his face told the whole story. He was so disappointed. He immediately tried to fix it. He pushed every button. When he finally accepted that there would be no TV in the immediate future, his imagination kicked in. He ran to get his Cars back pack.

Austin [staring into the dark TV screen]: "We have to help Goofy! He's in trouble!"

I can't tell the story any better than the pictures. Everyone got involved.

With Pooh in tow, I think we saved Goofy! Afterwards, we sang songs until the power came back on. It was a fun evening.