I blame Justin. He told the boys they could plant a garden in the side yard yesterday. They were being so quiet having so much fun back there that I didn't want to disturb them until it started getting dark. I went to the side of the house & found THIS:
They were planting little brothers.
Can you tell my camera flash is bright?
No matter how very, very hard they tried.......
............they just couldn't quite make it.............
............to China.
I also would like to note that earlier in the afternoon/evening (when the hole was a little smaller), there was a brief period when the boys were NOT quiet. I was happily facebooking, Justin was reading, Seth was studying, Isaac was watching Diego online & the 4 middle boys were out back doing the above "gardening". Everything was delightfully peaceful. Suddenly, from the FRONT yard, came terrified shrieks, screaming, hysterical, panicked, high-pitched crying & pounding on the front door. At first I thought there must a massive group of neighbor kids being chased by some horrible monster. Then I realized that there was something a bit familiar about the agonized voices screaming for mommy & daddy. Heart pounding, I rushed to open the door. Jarod, Micah, Gideon & Titus practically FELL into the house. Our yellow lab, Toby, had broken out of the back yard & was very excitedly frolicking with another very excited yellow lab (whom we had never seen before), who happened to be drooling a little bit. The boys had rushed after Toby, from the back yard to the front........screaming something about the other dog foaming at the mouth & rabies. The two yellow dogs continued romping in the front yard. The boys continued screaming that the evil dog with rabies was going to kill Toby........that the dog with "rabies" was "attacking" Toby!! They were also in fear for their own lives. The diseased animal had also jumped up on them a bit too.....horror of horrors!!! Toby was having a good ole time. I was yelling at Toby to come in the house. Seth was yelling at Toby to come in the house. Our neighbor was in the street laughing & yelling at the other dog to go home. Justin was trying to calm the boys down. In the chaos, I couldn't get Toby to obey, nor could I convince the boys that we weren't going to have to lock Toby in a barn to shoot him. Nothing was being accomplished at all, so I shoved Seth, Justin & everyone back into the house, closed the door behind me & got Toby under control. Our nice neighbor took the other dog back to the back yard it had broken out of. Justin did damage control IN the house & reassuring them that Toby did NOT, indeed, have hydrophobia, or any other deadly, infectious, brain-eating disease. Toby & his friend were just very, very, very.......happy, albeit.......a little thirsty. Not frothing. The boys finally calmed down & went back to work on their "garden". All I can say is, "Old Yeller" might be a good, clean, family movie............but it's not necessarily the one you want your kids to watch. As it turns out.
