Indoor Stair Louge

Have you seen the new Cat In The Hat movie? The one with Mike Myers as the cat? Well, in the beginning of the movie the boy tries to slide down the stairs riding a cookie sheet. He flies down the stairs and enjoys every minute of it. Funny stuff in a movie but not when it occurs in your home; with kids that don't evn belong to you! This is how it went down.

I was in the TV room with Katelyn feeding her a bottle. Kyle, Tyler and Paul were in Kyle's room playing Lego's war and Ryan, Lexi and Elisabeth were in the toy room with Lauren (a 14 year old neighbor that is coming to help me from 3-5). I hear a thump thump thump followed by thunderous laughter and more thumping. Tyler is quick to see what is going on outside of Kyle's room and I hear him say "Is that fun Ryan"? Ryan just laughs and I now hear THUD THUD THUD and hillarious laughter. I have figured out that they are slidding down the stairs. I decide that this will be a good test to see how Lauren handles the situation. Now all the kids are wanting to try indoor stair louge and are fighting over who goes next. I am about to jump up when I hear Lauren so "No"!! I think to myself "good job Lauren" but then I hear..."why don't you guys get a sleeping bag, then you will FLY down the stairs!!" The kids can barely hear me screaming over their roar of approval at the idea. I come to the room and say "Lauren, that is not helpful, play time is over get in the kitchen for snacks". Well now Ryan is crying because he has rug burn on his belly and wants to fly in a sleeping bag, Lexi is crying because she didn't even get a turn and Kyle is mad and pouting because now they can't play kill and destroy anymore. I tell Lexi and Tyler that if they want to try sleeping bag suicide to do it at home. Slidding down the stairs is dangerous and I can't let them do it. They went home that night and took my suggestion - Lexi and Tyler are now grounded.

So Lauren has a lot to learn. I guess I do too...I should know that 14 year old girls are not well known for solid judgement and wise decision making. Oh well, at least no one got hurt. Except for the rug burns of course.

What started it all. The acorn story.

Alright. After a few inquires on Facebook I decided to post the story but it was too long to post on the wall so I decided...why not? I have 5-8 kids in my house everyday. Everyday brings new adventure. So here it is...the acorn story.

My parents invited me to go camping at Yogi Bear for the annual Halloween fest with them, Jenae, AJ, Danette and Megan. Elisabeth and Kyle really enjoy Yogi Bear with their cousins and sitting by a campfire all day sounded good to me so off we went.

We arrived just in time for pumpkin carving, painting, destroying time which was quite fun. After that, Jenae went around looking for acorns and showed Elisabeth how to turn acorns into pumpkins using orange and black paint and lots of patience. Well Elisabeth LOVED that!! The rest of the day we found her looking for acorns. While we were trick or treating she was collecting acorns. While we were eating she was collecting acorns. Being the animal lover she is, (snakes, bunnies, ferrets, stingrays even spiders and worms) she left the "easy" acorns for the squirrels. Easy means that they are damaged in some way and would make horrible jackolanterns but excellent food.

So our halloween day craft was to be painting miniature jackolanterns for all the kids to take home. ADORABLE.

Fast forward two weeks to last Wednesday. I am cleaning up the kitchen and find a small white slug. Gross but not horribly out of ordinary since my animal loving daughter and I spend hours collecting worms off the sidewalk and driveways in the neighborhood so they don't burn up or freeze. I dispose of the bug and disinfect the counter.

From this point on I start to notice gnats. Again, who doesn't have gnats now and then. I look in the pantry - no rotting potatoes. I clean the garbage disposal. I take out the garbage and clean the can. No biggie.

Yesterday I find another white "slug" on the counter and realize as I gag in horror that it is a magot. A MAGOT in my kitchen. Not good. I grab the bleach and start ti clean my kitchen from one side to the other. I cleaned in and around the bread box, the knife block, the cookie jar, the sugar bowl, the flour bowl, the mixaide, the coffee maker, the garbage disposal again...it is then I see it. The Halloween decoration Kyle made at Yogi Bear 3 weeks ago that I have been proudly dispalying. I peer inside. And I see acorns. Acorns covered in little wriggling, disgusting, white, "slugs". My darling daughter and I had been harboring gnats and their huge nursery of offspring for THREE weeks. So there you have it. Acorns are fruit of the devil.

Have a great day!!